Cleric's Exit Imperils Pakistan Peace Deal

A hard-line cleric who negotiated a peace accord that halted fighting between the Taliban and security forces in part of northwest Pakistan said Thursday he is leaving the region to protest the government's failure to impose Islamic law.

The announcement casts serious doubt on the durability of a cease-fire in the Swat valley that U.S. officials worry will create another sanctuary for allies of al Qaeda responsible for a rising tide of violence in the nuclear-armed country.

The U.S. Embassy said "heightened security" was prompting it to suspend routine consular services Friday in Pakistan's capital. Spokesman Lou Fintor declined Thursday night to detail what led to the security concern in Islamabad, but said consulates in other major cities would remain open and that emergency services would still be available for Americans.

Imposing Islamic law in Swat, a one-time tourist haven, was the key plank of an accord worked out in February between the provincial government and Sufi Muhammad, a cleric who once led thousands of volunteers to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan but has since renounced violence.

Thanks in part to Muhammad's mediation, the agreement ended 18 months of terror and bloody clashes that had left hundreds dead and forced up to one-third of the previously prosperous valley's 1.5 million residents to flee.

But the militants have retained their arms and this week pushed into a neighboring area just 60 miles northwest of Islamabad, where they fought deadly gunbattles with villagers and police.

A senior Pakistani government official involved with negotiating the peace deal in Swat told CBS News Thursday evening that the agreement with Muhammad was intact, and claimed that the cleric's decision to take a step back from the agreement, "does not mark an end to this deal."

Speaking to CBS News' Farhan Bokhari on condition of anonymity, the official said the government was still trying to negotiate with the cleric, and that, "his decision to leave his peace camp in Swat is essentially a pressure tactic."

President Asif Ali Zardari has said he will only sign an order introducing Islamic law in the region once peace has been restored - without saying how that would be determined.

Muhammad, who had been camped out in the valley's main town of Mingora with hundreds of black-turbaned supporters, said they were leaving to protest Zardari's "negative attitude."

"From now on, President Zardari will be responsible for any situation in Swat," the white-bearded cleric told reporters. "The provincial government is sincere and our agreement with the provincial government is intact, but we are ending our peace camp."

Television footage showed dozens of Muhammad's supporters crammed into a column of cars and driving out of Mingora, some of them clutching black and white flags.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for the government of North West Frontier Province, said he believed the federal government was "sincere" in supporting the peace effort, but said he couldn't say when the Islamic law bill would be signed.

"We are committed to bringing about a durable peace and we will continue our efforts in the changed situation," Hussain said.

Zardari aides said officials were looking into the matter but gave no further comment.

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a political and military analyst, said Zardari may have delayed signing off on the agreement because of concerns within the year-old civilian government over negotiating with militants.

"The opinion is divided," Rizvi said. "A good number of people in the government think that this is not the right approach."

Zardari's foot-dragging also lets him save face with Western critics of the deal, he said.

Under former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan struck a series of peace deals with militants along the Afghan border that U.S. officials say let the Taliban and al Qaeda regroup and focus their energy on attacking American and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama has made a sharp increase in financial aid to Pakistan conditional on it demonstrating more commitment to rooting out al Qaeda and other extremist groups.

U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke said Tuesday after meeting Zardari in Islamabad that the situation in Swat had helped persuade more of Pakistan's political elite of the need to combat extremism at America's side.

Pakistan desperately needs economic aid to ease the fallout from an economic crunch. It also faces an exodus of foreign investors in the face of rising violence and political uncertainty.

On Thursday, one policeman died and five more were injured as protests erupted across the southwestern province of Baluchistan after the discovery of the mutilated bodies of three missing political activists.

The trio included the leader of one of an array of Baluch groups campaigning - or fighting - for more autonomy and control over natural resources in the impoverished province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

Activists immediately blamed Pakistan's spy agencies for the political activists' deaths. Police said they were investigating.

Over the weekend, a previously unknown Baluch group freed an American U.N. worker after holding him for two months to press the government to release political prisoners.

Also Thursday, suspected militants ambushed a convoy in the northwest's Kurram tribal agency, killing a security guard and wounding six other people including the area's top government official, Arshad Majeed. His deputy Ayaz Khan confirmed the incident and said Majeed was in stable condition.