Islamabad, August 03: Pakistan is set to prosecute an influential pro-Taliban cleric and some of his supporters on charges of rebellion and terrorism, officials have said.
Local security officials in Swat valley said on Sunday that the charges against Sufi Muhammad were lodged in a police station in the troubled northwestern valley.
“A case of waging war and conspiracy against the country has also been registered,” Swat Police Chief Sajid Khan Mohmand said.
Sufi, the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, was arrested on July 26 on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital city of the insurgency-hit North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Fazlullah, the Chief of the Taliban in Swat who once became famous for his harsh speeches against Pakistan’s government on illegal FM radio channels, led thousands of his supporters in a brutal campaign beheading opponents and storming girls’ schools in the volatile region.
Later on, Sufi negotiated a peace deal between the Pakistani government and the Taliban in February, which allowed the militant group to impose its style of strict Sharia laws in Swat in exchange for an end to years of violence.
The deal collapsed in April after the Taliban refused to lay down arms and tried to infiltrate into Islamabad and other major Pakistani cities.
Pakistan’s army claims to have killed more than 1,800 militants in the two-month-long deadly mission in the scenic valley.
—-Agencies