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Pakistan creates Islamic court
AFP - Monday, May 4
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - - Pakistan has announced the creation of an Islamic appellate court in its northwest, pushing ahead with a flagging peace deal even as its offensive against Taliban extremists raged on Sunday.
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The army said 20 more militants had been killed in the nearly week-long assault on insurgents who advanced into two new districts in Malakand region, the fringes of which are only 100 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad.
Pakistan in February agreed to allow religious hardliners to enforce Islamic law in the Swat valley, a part of Malakand that was once a tourist hotspot, and other districts to try and end a two-year rebellion led by a radical cleric.
But instead of disarming as required under the deal, the Taliban instead pushed further south toward the capital, taking over large swathes of the districts of Lower Dir and Buner -- and prompting the latest army offensive.
"The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government announces the setting up of Darul Qaza, or an Islamic appellate court, in Malakand," provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters late Saturday.
Hussain said two judges had been appointed to serve on the court and the government "has now fulfilled its promise," but a Taliban spokesman on Sunday rejected the court and condemned the ongoing military assault.
"Any such decision under the shadow of a military operation is not acceptable to us," Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told AFP.
"The government should first stop the operation and then appoint judges for the court in consultations with Sufi Mohammad," he added, referring to the pro-Taliban cleric who negotiated the peace deal.
The government's decision to sign the February sharia pact, which was only recently ratified by President Asif Ali Zardari, triggered fears that the increasingly brazen Taliban in Pakistan would only become bolder.
Washington has expressed concern, with President Barack Obama saying Zardari's government was "very fragile" and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying Pakistan was "basically abdicating" to the Taliban in the area.
The United States is worried that the area will become a haven for Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters who can stage attacks against US troops deployed across the border in Afghanistan.
Obama is due to meet Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the deteriorating situation.
Hussain, the NWFP spokesman, said the "ball is now in the court of Sufi Mohammad" -- the father-in-law of insurgency leader Maulana Fazlullah.
"Now that we have fulfilled our promise, it is now the responsibility of Sufi Mohammad to ask the Taliban to lay down arms," Hussain said.
Ameer Izzat Khan, a spokesman for Sufi Mohammad, said he neither rejected nor accepted the court, and would wait to assess the judges' performance.
"The government unilaterally announced the creation of the court and appointment of judges," he told AFP.
"It had been agreed that Sufi Mohammad would come to Peshawar and the court would be created after mutual consultations, but that did not happen."
Pakistan's military said Sunday that operations in Buner were "progressing smoothly," with a militant commander killed and 21 vehicles slated for use in suicide attacks destroyed.
"In the Buner operation so far, 80 militants have been killed while three soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and eight others were injured," the military said in a statement.
The army had previously put the death toll in Buner at 55 to 60, and said that altogether more than 200 militants had been killed in both districts since Operation Black Thunder began.
The military has said about a dozen soldiers have died in the twin assaults.
None of the deaths or details provided by the military could be immediately confirmed independently.
The militant campaign has proved to be a serious challenge for the government of Zardari, who pledged this week not to let the country's nuclear weapons arsenal fall into the hands of militants.
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