Thaindian News

Islamabad, Aug 26 (DPA) A Pakistani court granted bail Wednesday to the sons of a radical cleric who mediated a failed peace pact to end a Taliban insurgency in the troubled Swat district, media reports said.
Sufi Mohammad and his three sons were arrested July 22 in the north-western city of Peshawar under a security law after they held meetings of their proscribed pro-Taliban group despite government warnings.

The Peshawar High Court ordered the release of Mohammad’s sons on bail Wednesday, observing that the prosecution failed to prove its case as to how the trio was a threat to public order, the Urdu-language Express News television channel said.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister in North West Frontier Province, of which Peshawar is the capital, earlier accused them of encouraging terrorism and sabotaging government moves to fight militancy.

Mohammad brokered the peace deal in February, but Taliban militants led by his son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah refused to disarm and exploited the truce to expand their control to nearby districts.

Security forces launched a major offensive, also involving the use of air power, in Swat and its neighbouring areas late April, and announced they had re-taken most parts of the mountainous area in July.

Kifayatullah, Mohammad’s eldest son, was killed in a clash with troops in his stronghold of Lower Dir early May.

The military says it has eliminated more than 1,800 militants, but troops are still clearing small pockets of resistance in several areas. The casualty count cannot be confirmed independently.

Human rights groups claim hundreds of civilians died in the onslaught.

Critics fear a resurgence of Taliban violence as only a few of the main militant leaders have been killed or detained during the operation which displaced nearly two million people. Fazlullah is among the fugitive leaders.

Sporadic clashes between soldiers and Taliban remnants picked up pace in August, with a couple of suicide bombings on security forces stationed in Swat.