The deal worked out between the NWFP government in Pakistan and the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) in Swat has generated a great deal of concern in India and in the West. It has been variously described as surrender to the Taliban or collusion with the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to give them another safe haven. In the Indian Parliament, it has been pointed out that with the fall of Swat, the Taliban are now just 500 km from Amritsar (and 100 km from Islamabad).

How real are these concerns? What are the factors that have made the Pakistan government seemingly cave in to the Taliban? To understand these issues, it is necessary to get to know the background of the main players of the drama unfolding in this beautiful alpine valley, once known as Gandhara, a location which captured the imagination of Alexander, Seleucus, Chandragupta Maurya and Kanishka.

The most important amongst them undoubtedly is the man who has brokered the peace deal, Maulana Sufi Mohammed, who founded the TNSM in the late ’80s. Promoting Sharia law was the prime objective of the TNSM. He did succeed in forcing the Benazir Bhutto government to announce the imposition of the Sharia law in Swat in 1994. Sufi Mohammed and the TNSM also had close linkages with Maulana Masood Azhar. After his release in Kandahar, Azhar is reported to have gone straight to Swat, joined the TNSM and spent some time training its cadres before founding his own Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The Maulana went with 10,000 volunteers to help the Afghan Taliban in the aftermath of 9/11, but his fighters got mauled in their encounters with the Northern Alliance. On his return, his party was proscribed by President Musharraf and he was put behind bars. Thereafter, his party went into decline, until, under the leadership of Mullah Fazlullah, his son-in-law, it regained popularity. Faquir Mohammed, the Taliban leader in the neighbouring Bajaur Agency, is also Sufi Mohammed’s protégé. Sufi Mohammed was released in April 2008 by the new PPP government. A peace deal was signed by the government with his party, which promised to bring back peace to Swat, which of course did not materialise.

... contd.