This Article is From Jul 26, 2009

Pak: Pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad held

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AP image

Islamabad:

A Pakistani minister has said that authorities have arrested pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad, who brokered a now-failed peace deal between the government and militants in the Swat valley.

Mian Iftikhar, information minister for the North West Frontier Province, said police arrested Mohammed in Peshawar on Sunday for speaking against the government and encouraging violence and terrorism.

The influential cleric negotiated a peace deal with the government in February that was widely seen as allowing the Taliban to take control of the Valley.

But the deal collapsed in April when the Taliban advanced into neighbouring districts, triggering a military offensive that prompted a spree of retaliatory attacks by militants in the northwest and beyond.

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