Pakistan official: All Taliban have left Buner

[April 25, 2009]  PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- Taliban militants have completed their pullback from a district just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the Pakistani capital and troops have fanned out in their wake, a senior official said Saturday.

The Taliban's retreat to their stronghold in the Swat Valley brings some relief for Pakistani officials trying to salvage a controversial peace deal that halted nearly two years of bloody fighting in the northwestern region.

But U.S. officials kept up their pressure for more forceful action against Islamist groups that pose a growing threat to nuclear-armed Pakistan's stability as well as to American troops battling in neighboring Afghanistan.

Militants from Swat seized Buner, a jumble of mountains and farmsteads on the west bank of the Indus River, after President Asif Ali Zardari earlier this month signed the peace pact, which provides for the introduction of Islamic Shariah law in the region.

They began pulling out on Friday as officials issued increasingly loud threats of military action and a hard-line cleric who mediated the peace deal intervened to defuse the tension.

Syed Mohammad Javed, the top government official in Malakand Division, which includes Swat and Buner, said Saturday that all the militants had crossed the mountain passes into Swat.

"They all have gone back," Javed told The Associated Press. "No one is left in Buner."

He also said that six platoons of paramilitary troops had deployed to police stations across Buner.

"If police need their help, they will assistant them in maintaining law and order," Javed said.

Javed said the cleric, Sufi Muhammad, had also given his assurance that Swat militants would soon retreat to Swat from another adjoining area, Shangla.

The Taliban's push into Buner raised alarm in Pakistan and the West that militants increasingly threaten key cities such as Islamabad and the vital northwestern hub of Peshawar.

It also showed how militants are seizing on the peace accord to demand the imposition of a harsh version of Islamic law across more and more of the country.

During their time in the area, the Taliban issued orders that prohibited women from going to the market alone and barbers from shaving beards. But commanders insisted their fighters were preaching peacefully for Shariah.

Western officials worry that Swat could turn into an expanding haven for allies of al-Qaida. The trouble there also diverts Pakistan from tackling more established militant sanctuaries closer to the Afghan border.

The advance into Buner triggered unusually strong condemnation from the United States, where lawmakers are considering a bill granting Pakistan $1.5 billion in aid each year to help it battle extremism.

The Obama administration is trying to persuade Pakistan and its large army to focus more on militants inside its borders than the nation's longtime enemy, India.

"We're certainly moving closer to the tipping point" where Pakistan could be overtaken by Islamic extremists, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview broadcast Friday.

Pakistan's army, accused by some U.S. officials of secretly helping some insurgent groups, is bristling at the criticism and on Friday issued an unusually tough-worded statement.

Apparently referring to the Swat deal, army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said it was meant "to give the reconciliatory forces a chance (but) must not be taken for a concession to the militants."

Kayani said the army was "determined to root out the menace of terrorism" and would "not allow the militants to dictate terms to the government or impose their way of life."

[Associated Press; By RIAZ KHAN]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.