Pakistan, Taliban have truce

MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan has agreed to an open-ended cease-fire with Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, government officials said Saturday, extending a truce as the country pursues broader, much-criticized talks aimed at calming a large swath of its northwestern region bordering Afghanistan.

The Taliban leader in Swat, however, said the militants would only decide on whether to halt fighting for good after a 10-day cease-fire announced last Sunday expires — and that decision hinged on the government’s taking unspecified “practical steps.”

The twists underscored the fragile nature of peace talks in Pakistan’s northwest, where al-Qaida and Taliban militants have established strongholds. Past peace deals have collapsed, including one last year with militants in Swat that security officials said simply allowed the insurgents to regroup.

Also Saturday, a roadside bomb killed one person elsewhere in Pakistan’s chaotic northwest along a supply route that is used heavily by U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the mother of an American kidnapped in southwestern Pakistan issued the family’s first public appeal for his release.

Taliban fighters in the Swat Valley have beheaded opponents, torched girls schools and terrorized the police to gain control of much of the one-time tourist haven, despite a lengthy military offensive. Hundreds have been killed and up to a third of the valley’s 1.5 million residents have fled, making the government increasingly desperate to pacify the area.

In a talks with a hard-line, Taliban-linked cleric, the government agreed Monday to impose Islamic law in Swat and surrounding areas if the extremists stop fighting. It also suspended the military offensive, though it did not pull out troops. The cleric, Sufi Muhammad, was dispatched to persuade the militants to agree to peace.