Pakistan plays too much politics with extremists
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The man on the left is the Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani (click here). Everyone knows the guy on the right.
...Pakistani officials in North West Frontier Province signed an agreement Monday with Sufi Muhammad, a militant leader who pledged to lay down arms in exchange for having Islamic law or Sharia in Swat valley....
Sufi Mohammad ordered thousands of followers to Afghanistan to fight the USA when we retaliated for September 11, 2001 attacks. In other words, he sent John Walker Lynd into Afghanistan, either wittingly or not, to kill Americans. John Walker Lynd is in prison. Sufi Mohammad WAS in prison until 2008, when he screamed 'non-violence' was better than a jail cell.
Now that Pakistan has established Shari Law in Swat they are allowing the very man that sent people to kill Americans back into the mix. That is the worst decision making I have ever heard, considering the 'low' success rate even the Saudis have with reformation of terrorists.
Sufi was 'in on' the negotiations for Swat. Now I said, FOR Swat. He sat down at a table with Pakistani government officials and 'bargained' for Swat.
Sufi Muhammad meets Fazlullah today (click here)
Updated at: 0710 PST, Wednesday, February 18, 2009
SWAT: The Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad will meet his son-in-law, Maulana Fazlullah in Swat today (Wednesday) and persuade him to lay down the arms.
Earlier, life returned to near normalcy in Swat on Tuesday as Maulana Sufi Mohammad, heading a peace caravan of hundreds of his black-turbaned followers, reached Mingora after a three-hour drive from Timergara.
Talking to newsmen here, Sufi Muhammad said that he would persuade Taliban to end their armed struggle.
“Our peace caravan and camp in Swat will continue till the restoration of calm,” Sufi Mohammad declared in his short address to a big gathering at Grassy Ground in Mingora.
He said negotiations would be held with the Swat militants and they would be convinced to lay down arms, as the NWFP government had met their demand by enforcing Nizam-e-Adl. “All Qazi courts will soon be established in the Malakand division and Kohistan, which will provide speedy and cheap justice,” he assured people....
Quite a deal.
So, let's see if I get this right. Sufi decides to assit al Qaeda by sending in followers to Afghanistan to kill Americans. He is caught and imprisoned. While in prison, he is reformed and takes a caravan for peace to Swat. The very place he once organized resistance against the Pakistani government and sent followers to kill Americans.
That makes sense?
I can understand how a returning militant, honed by Allah to fear for his very life can be an instrument of reform to others, especially if they understand each other 'in the hood.' But, to turn him loose to organize AGAIN, rather than 'just spreading the word' that the Pakistani government and the USA 'mean business' and 'don't do what I did.' While, of course, he is grateful to still be alive from a merciful government.
This is the way Pakistan 'handles' the 'wilds' of the tribal areas? Why don't I have confidence in this mess?
Why?