ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — A week after Pakistani authorities struck a controversial accord with Taliban militants in a violence-plagued valley in Pakistan's northwest, the terms of the deal remained clouded amid a Pakistani diplomatic push to gain American support.
The lingering confusion coincides with visits to the United States this week by two high-ranking Pakistani officials: army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Both are facing questions about the agreement in Swat, a onetime tourist jewel less than 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad.
Critics say any widening of the Swat accord could provide Taliban and Al Qaeda militants with a refuge even larger than their existing havens in the tribal areas along the Afghan border. There were early signs that the pact might be helping to spur similar agreements elsewhere.
A spokesman for the Pakistani military announced Monday that army operations in Swat had been halted, and a Taliban spokesman said today that the insurgents would observe an indefinite cease-fire.
At the same time, a senior Taliban commander in the nearby Bajaur tribal area, Faqir Mohammed, declared that his fighters also would observe a cease-fire, this one unilateral.
The Pakistani army, which launched a major offensive in Bajaur over the summer, has claimed a degree of success in clearing out insurgent strongholds and has already indicated that it might wrap up operations there soon.
The Swat accord has been greeted with caution by U.S. officials, who have been critical of such pacts. Previous truces have collapsed but have given the militants time to rearm and regroup.
The agreement was unveiled early last week, when officials in the North-West Frontier Province said they would allow the imposition of Islamic law, or Sharia, in Swat and surrounding districts in exchange for a cease-fire by the insurgents. In the intervening days, however, both sides have repeatedly made contradictory statements about the nature of their accord.
Critics have described the pact as a dangerous capitulation to Islamic militants who began battling government forces in Swat more than a year ago, enforcing their dominance of the valley with beheadings, floggings, school burnings and abductions.
The government has defended the truce as an interim arrangement meant to quell violence that has mainly affected the civilian population of Swat. Pakistan's civilian government also says the version of Sharia to be imposed in the valley is envisioned as a relatively mild form of a code of justice that often takes a harsh form.
