Pakistan Militants receive compensation for peace deal

‘The amount has been paid through a backchannel,’ a senior security official told AKI on condition of anonymity.
 
‘It is compensation for those who were killed during military operations and for the properties destroyed by the security forces. In fact, negotiations for this package were finalised well before Maulana Sufi Mohammad signed a peace deal.’

The security official said the amount was delivered from a special fund of the President. All the tribal areas come under the president’s jurisdiction and a special aid package, including a donation from the US, was designated for the tribal area by the president’s office and distributed through the governor’s office in the North West Frontier Province.

A historic agreement endorsing Sharia law was reached between the government and local leader Sufi Mohammad a week ago. The deal ended two years of fierce conflict in which at least 1,700 government soldiers and hundreds of civilians were killed and 600,000 people were displaced.

The director-general of Inter- Services-Public Relations major general Athar Abbas officially announced the end of military operations in the province’s volatile Swat Valley.

The Pakistan army said it had ceased all operations against Taliban militants in Swat, even though US officials have expressed concern about the deal.
 
‘The state failed to control foreign elements in Swat,’ said Maj. Gen. Abbas. ‘The militants were getting funds from state enemies.’

But Abbas also noted the failure of state machinery, like police, in Swat as the major reason for the government failure to defeat militants.
 
‘It created a vacuum. Security forces just cannot operate without the help of state machinery,’ he said.