Frontier government calls Taliban thugs

Islamabad: Pakistan's frontier province government has for the first time declared that the Swat Taliban, with whom it indirectly entered into a peace deal in February through cleric Sufi Mohammad, were violent and only engaged in sabotage activities.

"These Taliban don't want Sharia, but were engaged in bringing destruction to their country," North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Minister Iftikhar Hussain told media in Pesahwar.

"Which type of Islam are these Taliban following by killing people and destroying their properties?" the minister questioned.

NWFP provincial government in February entered into a peace deal with elderly cleric Sufi Mohammad to restore peace in restive Swat region, where security forces and Taliban had been engaged in a bitter conflict for the last many months.

But the nearly two-month old ceasefire could not hold as Taliban from Swat captured some key areas of nearby Buner and Dir districts in April, sending alarm bells ringing across the country and necessitating a military operation in these areas, which are continuing till date.

The minister claimed that no military operation is going on in Swat valley at the moment, and the security forces were only responding to militants' actions.

"I don't understand what Sufi Mohammad is up to. We accepted all his demands but even then he is not happy. These extremists [Taliban] killed the top policeman of Buner alongwith his companions, then occupied Shal Bandei, Pir Baba and other areas of Buner district by force," Hussain said. "Sufi Mohammad has his own strange ways. He only demands his own terms to be accepted, and delivers nothing by himself.

"Lately he was demanding of the government to hand over accused in a suicide attack."

As the NWFP government vented its anger against the Taliban, the governor of the most populous province of the country, Punjab, said his province faced no threat from Taliban.

"Although there are reports of a Taliban training centre in southern Punjab, these Taliban pose no threat to Punjab province," Salman Taseer said.

The governor said there was no need to engage Taliban in talks or sign agreements with them.