Taliban retreat after Pakistan ultimatum

Critics fear that the withdrawal from Buner is part of the militant strategy to spread their control across more of the country.

Taliban militants began pulling out the Buner region of north-west Pakistan on Friday, returning to a stronghold in the Swat valley.

Clutching guns, their faces covered with scarves, dozens of Taliban fighters boarded buses and pick ups yesterday as they withdrew from a part of north-west Pakistan they had occupied for the past three days. The withdrawal from Buner, about 100 kilometres from the capital, Islamabad, came after the government threatened to remove them by force, but then also offered them concessions, a move, analysts said, would do little to allay fears the country was falling under the sway of the Islamists.

The Taliban agreed to retreat to their stronghold in neighbouring Swat valley after receiving assurances from local government officials that un-Islamic activity would be kept in check in Buner. There were no details about what activity the Taliban were specifically referring to. "Taliban have started withdrawing from Buner unconditionally," Syed Mohammad Javed, the top government administrator in Swat, told AFP yesterday. "This process will be completed by this evening. We have told Taliban that the government will check any un-Islamic activity in the area."

The order to withdraw came from Fazlullah, the Taliban commander in the Swat valley, where the government has agreed to the imposition of Islamic law. TV images showed militants, some masked with scarves and carrying automatic weapons, leaving the villa that served as their headquarters in Buner and boarding buses and pick-ups. Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the militants, said they were leaving "of their own accord, not under any pressure".

The Taliban's move into the Buner district, just 96km away from the capital of the nuclear-armed state, was met with alarm by the US, which has fiercely criticised the government-backed deal to impose Islamic law in Swat in return for peace with militants. Critics had feared that the move would embolden the Taliban to spread their influence further, a view that was vindicated when the Taliban infiltrated Buner three days ago, setting up check points and intimidating residents. "This is part of a pattern that has emerged. They [the Taliban] will reach out and lay claim to some land to test out what the government's reaction will be. Time is on their side. You might see a little bit of retreating but they have a plan, and their plan is to expand as much as they can at the expense of Islamabad," said Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Dubai-based Institute for Near Eastern and Gulf Military Analysis (Inegma).

Yesterday's withdrawal was brokered by Sufi Mohammed, a hardline cleric who helped negotiate the deal in the Swat. The cleric held meetings with Taliban leaders yesterday morning to persuade them to withdraw from Buner, AP reported. The Pakistani government had sent more than 100 paramilitary troops into Buner, a rural area in the foothills of the Karakoram mountains, on Thursday to protect government buildings, but violent clashes broke out as they were ambushed by militants.

Pressure had been mounting on Pakistan to take action against the militants as they moved towards the capital, particularly from the US, for whom clamping down on militants is a key strategy to quell escalating violence in neighbouring Afghanistan. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has accused the government of "basically abdicating to the Taliban and extremists". In a tough statement, which fuelled speculation that the government may be planning an offensive in Swat, the army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said the deal to impose Islamic law was meant to give reconciliation a chance but "must not be taken for a concession to the militants". He said the army is "determined to root out the menace of terrorism" and will not "allow the militants to dictate terms to the government or impose their way of life".

Mr Karasik said a military offensive was unlikely to be imminent: "It's possible, I think they are going to leave it for a while but in the next few months as the pressure builds, they will be forced to act," he said. * With agencies @Email:[e-mail]