Pakistani government makes deal with Islamic militants

[babylonsister]

Pakistani government makes deal with Islamic militants

By Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani government has agreed to a deal that could impose Islamic law in parts of the country in an attempt to placate Islamic militants, while Pres. Asif Zardari warned in an interview to be aired Sunday that the Islamists are "trying to take over the state."

Pakistani officials said that Islamic law, or sharia, would be imposed in a vast region of northwestern Pakistan called Malakand under a deal hammered out with the militants over the weekend.

The Pakistani move is likely to add to the strains between the U.S. and Pakistan, which a nearly completed U.S. military study is expected to say is a more urgent foreign policy challenge for President Barack Obama than Iraq or Iran are.

A parade of high-level U.S. officials has visited Pakistan to press for more aggressive military efforts against Islamic militants and to criticize attempts to negotiate peace deals with extremists.


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