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Militants guard Fazlullah’s madrassa

* Spokesman says Fazlullah is in constant contact with militants

SWAT: Militants armed with assault rifles and walkie-talkies guard the approach to the stronghold of radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, whose mission to spread fundamentalist Islam has resulted in the government deploying 2,500 troops to combat the growing extremism in the region.

Going beyond the checkpoint on Saturday, an Associated Press reporter entered a sprawling madrassa that lies beyond state control.

While scores of militants lurked outside the madrassa, the complex near the village of Imam Dheri was largely empty after Friday’s fighting when militants traded rocket and gunfire across the river with security forces backed by helicopter gunships. At least three people died in the clashes.

Fragments of rockets and shells that had been fired by security forces were displayed outside the complex, which appeared undamaged. Security forces were still posted on overlooking hilltops.

Fazlullah near: “He [Fazlullah] is here and we are in contact,” Fazlullah’s spokesman, Sirajuddin, told the AP and two local journalists in an interview.

Swat, once famed as a tourist resort, has become embroiled in violence in the past three days. A suicide bomber hit a truck carrying soldiers in the main district town, killing 20, after the government deployed paramilitary troops in the region. When security forces launched their assault, militants retaliated by kidnapping and beheading 13 people elsewhere, accusing them of being American spies.

Badshah Gul Wazir, the top civilian security official in NWFP, described the executions as a militant ploy to “terrorise” the people.

However, Sirajuddin denied involvement in the bombing and claimed that local villagers sympathetic to the militants had executed the abducted men, who included six security forces personnel. Still, he threatened that militants could resort to those tactics. “If a military operation starts against us there will be suicide attacks as well as a guerrilla war,” he said.

Sirajuddin laid out Fazlullah’s demands: Hostilities would cease if Shariah was adopted and the government released Sufi Muhammad, Fazlullah’s father-in-law who was jailed in 2002 for having sent thousands of volunteers to Afghanistan during the US-led invasion in 2001.

As well as marshalling armed militants and enforcing Islamic law, Fazlullah has used his illegal FM radio station to urge schoolgirls to wear burqas and has forced several development organisations to close their offices, accusing them of spreading immorality as they use female staff, residents say.

That has irked authorities, but Sirajuddin said tensions in Swat had risen in the wake of the Pakistani army raid on Lal Masjid in Islamabad. “The situation in the whole country, particularly here, has changed because of Lal Masjid,” Sirajuddin said. “This situation is the reaction to Lal Masjid.” ap

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