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Ongoing Taliban violence:

Peace deal with Swat militants scrapped

* Interior Affairs adviser says escalating violence has rendered redundant efforts to continue with deal
* Three suicide bombers’ arrest averted ‘big tragedy’, Malik tells NA

ISLAMABAD: The government has scrapped its peace deal with the Taliban as militants have reneged on their promise to stop violence, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik said on Monday.

The NWFP government signed a peace agreement last month with militants in the Swat valley. The militants had agreed that they would refrain from attacking the security forces.

“The Swat agreement is scrapped as the militants have [continued] their attacks on security forces,” Malik told a group of reporters in Islamabad.

The announcement comes a day after Taliban militants killed four policemen in an ambush in Mattani, near Peshawar. The Taliban accused the government of not honouring its commitments under the deal on Sunday.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Islamabad Kamal Hyder quoted Malik as saying earlier on Monday that escalating violence against government forces meant there was no point in continuing with the deal signed last month.

“The Interior minister... has admitted that there has been an escalation [in attacks],” Hyder said, “and that if the government did lose its patience and the militants in that area did not stop their activities then the deal would be off.”

Hyder said that the government was talking from a position of strength having fortified positions and moved the military into the Swat valley.

“The government’s contention is that as long as those people do not allow the government to re-establish its power over the entire region, then they will not give in to any of [the Taliban’s] demands.

“Many analysts are looking at this as a warning shot by the government to the Taliban, saying to them that the challenge to the government is unacceptable,” Hyder said.

Hyder said that there were elements within the Taliban who are averse to peace with the government and are attempting to sabotage any dialogue between the two sides.

Big tragedy: Responding to questions during the National Assembly question hour, Malik said law-enforcement agencies had averted a ‘big tragedy’ after arresting three “students” who were allegedly on a suicide mission in Islamabad on Sunday.

He said the alleged suicide bombers were ready to strike within an hour, but did not disclose their identities and intended targets.

Rehman said the vehicles seized from them were packed with explosives weighing between 200 kilogrammes and 400 kgs, which could have destroyed a whole sector. daily times monitor/ agencies/zulfiqar ghuman

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