Pakistan Signs Truce With Militants

Written for CBSNews.com by Farhan Bokhari, reporting from Islamabad.

In return, militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah, a powerful cleric in the Swat valley, agreed to stop attacks on government forces and installations in the area, to stop carrying weapons in public, and to let girls attend school.

Security officials say the government has agreed to free between 65 and 300 prisoners, mostly men loyal to Fazlullah, who have been cleared by national security agencies as posing little threat. Some of them are believed to be bystanders who were swept up during arrest raids.

Ali Bakht Khan, one of Fazlullah's representatives, spoke to reporters in the city of Peshawar on Wednesday. He called for the release of 202 prisoners within the next two weeks.

Conditions in Swat - once a haven for newly-wed Pakistani couples - have deteriorated over the past five years, since Fazlullah began a campaign for the imposition of traditional Islamic law.

That campaign coincided with the rapid growth of anti-Americanism in Pakistan after the government of President Pervez Musharraf joined the U.S.-led war on terror

To many, the worsening security conditions in Swat seemed to have few direct links to the situation in Afghanistan, where U.S. military officials worry about the growing influence of the Taliban, particularly along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

However, analysts warn that events in places like Swat indicate an overall trend in Pakistan whereby Islamic fundamentalists have increasingly challenged the authority of Musharraf's government.

In 2006, the Pakistani government signed an agreement with militants operating in Waziristan, a region along the Afghan border notorious for being a staging ground for cross-border attacks on U.S. and coalition troops.

Under the 2006 agreement, local tribal leaders promised to restrain militants from crossing into Afghanistan. However, that agreement eventually collapsed when the Taliban used the window of opportunity offered by the lull in fighting to rearm and reorganize themselves.

The group launched a bloody wave of attacks on Western and national security forces on both sides of the border.

On Sunday, Major General Athar Abbas, the chief spokesman of the Pakistani military, claimed the new peace agreements are different, primarily because they involve a much larger segment of the population from the border region. The new agreements are signed by militant leaders and non-militant community leaders.

According to General Abbas, the signatories to the peace agreement from the border areas are much more likely to fulfill their promises than those who are loyal to the militants.

The peace agreement with Swat is likely to stir anxieties among Western countries, most notably the United States, over Pakistan's direction in the war on terror. Many wonder if Pakistan's new coalition government has the power or political clout to adequately enforce law in the border regions.

Washington was officially reserving judgment on the deal. The Associated Press reported that State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, when pressed for comment Wednesday, said simply: "We'll see."

On Tuesday, John Negroponte, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, shared the Bush administration's misgivings on Pakistani peace deals with militants in the volatile border region.

"Are we concerned about the possibility of negotiations between the government, or elements of the government, and these extremist groups up there? Yes," Negroponte said.

A senior Western diplomat based in Islamabad, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, said "such peace agreements could well be a gamble. It's impossible to tell if the Pakistani position will be vindicated or the U.S. anxieties will be proven."