Word: islamabad
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...desperate move to deal with an intractable radical insurgency, the Pakistan government said it will impose a form of Islamic law in the Swat Valley, located in the northwestern corner of the country. As a result, Islamabad's faltering military campaign there has been put on hold, and the militants have agreed to a tentative cease-fire. But many observers fear that, far from calming the conflict, the government has capitulated to the Islamist guerrillas and set a worrying precedent - one that will surely displease the U.S. officials who want the Pakistani government to take a harder line against militants...
Government officials argue that by imposing Shari'a law, Islamabad is merely bowing to what is a popular local demand. The Swat Valley was traditionally a princely state that operated its own tribal system of governance until its merger with Pakistan in 1969. One of the factors that appears to have contributed to Fazlullah's ascent was his call for a return to a Shari'a-based system that offers swift justice and, therefore, relief from what many allege is Pakistan's venal police and court system. By stealing a march on Fazlullah, the government believes that...
...Some part of the conspiracy has taken place in Pakistan," Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told reporters in Islamabad on Thursday, marking a significant climbdown for the government. Less than two weeks ago, one of Pakistan's most senior diplomats had claimed the opposite. Pakistani officials attribute the change to information turned up by the Federal Investigation Agency, Pakistan's equivalent of the FBI. Drawing on leads furnished last month by New Delhi, Malik laid out a narrative of events that largely concurs with the Indian version. (See pictures of Mumbai in recovery...
...Islamabad proclaims the steps as proof of its bona fides in cracking down on terrorism. "I think today's announcement reflects our seriousness in bringing the perpetrators to justice," Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan's Foreign Minister, told TIME. "It is a testimony to what we've been saying, that we're serious about the investigation. What was given to us was fairly sketchy - but through our own investigations, we've been able to act. The Indian High Commissioner was called in today, and we handed in our investigation. We have shared it with our friends abroad, the European Union, China...
...Washington and London have been hoping that Islamabad will seize the crisis as an opportunity to permanently uproot the training camps that were first used by militant proxies of the Pakistani army to stage raids into Indian-administered Kashmir. Qureshi, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, insists that this has been done. "Absolutely," he said. "Whatever action needed to be taken has been taken." But his counterparts across the border are yet to be convinced...