The Taliban and the Pakistan Army signed a truce in February in Swat,the once-popular tourist area north of the capital. But far from establishing peace,the pact seems to have allowed the Taliban free rein to expand their harsh religious rule. Just days after the truce was signed,a member of a prominent anti-Taliban family returned to his mountain village,having received assurances from the Government that it was safe. He was promptly kidnapped by the Taliban,tortured and murdered. The militants then erected roadblocks to search cars for any relatives who dared travel there for his funeral. None did. This week,two Pakistani soldiers,who were part of a convoy escorting a water tanker,were shot and killed because they failed to inform the Taliban in advance of their movements. On Wednesday,the provincial Government signed an accord with the local Taliban leader that imposes Shariah in the area,and institutes a host of new regulations,including a ban on music,a requirement that shops close during calls to prayer and the installation of complaint boxes for reports of anti-Islamic behaviour. The Pakistani Government argued that the truce in Swat would free up the Pakistan Army,reduce civilian suffering and satisfy popular dissatisfaction with the local judiciary. Hundreds of thousands of people who have fled in the past six months to camps in surrounding districts or to relatives homes are staying put,unsure what they would encounter if they dared to return. The Pakistan Government agreed to the ceasefire with an ageing Islamic leader,Maulana Sufi Muhammad,on February 16 after the army had already ceded about 70 per cent of Swat,a pocket of snow-capped peaks and fertile valleys,to Taliban fighters. The Government said it regarded the truce as a way to separate what it considered to be more approachable militants,like Muhammad,from hard-line Taliban leaders like Maulana Fazlullah,his son-in-law,who is a young warlord flush with money and weapons. Fazlullah,backed by the main Pakistani Taliban group and Qaeda fighters,led the fight in Swat against the Pakistan Army in the past year. Critics of the deal say that it has accomplished nothing like that,and that it has simply handed Swat,once a tolerant,princely kingdom,to the Taliban.
