Islamist militants call ceasefire in Pakistan's Swat

By Junaid Khan

MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Islamist fighters called a 10-day ceasefire from Sunday in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley, where peace talks were underway that could restore Islamic sharia as the main system of law in the region.

Militants seeking to impose the strict form of Islamic law have also destroyed more than 200 girls schools in the mountainous valley, once a popular tourist destination, just 130 km northwest of Islamabad.

Last year in a bid to pacify the valley the authorities released Maulana Sufi Mohammad, a radical cleric who led a revolt in Swat in the 1990s, but the fighting continued and forced tens of thousands of people to flee.

"We're announcing ceasefire as a goodwill gesture for the ongoing talks between Maulana Sufi Mohammad and the government," Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the militants, said.

On Saturday, the militants in Swat freed a Chinese man held hostage for more than five months, in a move Pakistani officials saw as a act of good faith.

The new U.S. administration is alarmed by the possibility of the government giving in to militant demands to bring back sharia, according to Pakistani officials.

U.S. officials privately advocate heavy deployment of soldiers to restore state law although Pakistan and its security forces have tried and failed to do so in other regions with calamitous results.

President Asif Ali Zardari told CBS in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday that the Taliban had established itself across a large part of Pakistan, forcing the civilian government to fight a war for its own survival.