US privately backs sharia-for-peace deal

[LahoreEstate]

* US official says deal will divide TNSM and TTP

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The deal, under which sharia courts will be introduced in the Malakand and Kohistan districts if Taliban end their armed campaign in the Swat valley, enjoys private backing from the Americans, Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

NATO fears the deal would create a new “safe haven” for extremists, a spokesman for the alliance had said on Tuesday. A statement from Britain’s High Commission in Islamabad had said: “Previous peace deals have not provided a comprehensive and long-term solution to Swat’s problems. We need to be confident that they will end violence, not create space for further violence.”

US president’s special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan had voiced the greatest concern. “I talked to people from Swat and they were, frankly, quite terrified. Swat has really deeply affected the people of Pakistan, not just in Peshawar but in Lahore and Islamabad,” he had said. A Defence Department official had described the deal as a “negative development”. However, US officials in Islamabad privately backed the deal as an attempt to drive a wedge between Swat’s Taliban, which is focused on its demand for sharia law, and the Al Qaeda-linked Taliban led by Baitullah Mehsud.

“The strategy has to be to divide the two groups. The TNSM and Baitullah’s TTP found some common cause briefly, but a peace deal will separate them,” said one US official. One source suggested it reflected the “smart power” thinking outlined by Hillary Clinton in her Senate confirmation hearing as secretary of state.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg1_11