Five Dead In Pakistan`s Swat; Talks Pondered

A bomb went off on the outskirts of the valley`s main town of Mingora on Friday as a security patrol was passing.

Three civilians and two soldiers were killed in bomb blasts in Pakistan's Swat Valley on Friday as the government pondered its options for wresting control of the valley from Islamist militants.

The scenic valley was until recently one of Pakistan's prime tourist destinations, but militants seeking to impose a harsh form of Islamic law began battling security forces in 2007 and are now virtually in complete control, residents say.

The Islamists' grip on the valley, just 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad and away from the lawless Afghan border, highlights Pakistan's deteriorating security and a problem facing the new U.S. envoy for the region, Richard Holbrooke.

A bomb went off on the outskirts of the valley's main town of Mingora on Friday as a security patrol was passing, a day after security forces killed 11 militants in clashes in nearby districts.

"All three were passersby," a military official in Swat said of the victims, who included a woman. A soldier was wounded.

Later, a suicide car-bomber killed two soldiers and wounded 11 people in an attack on a checkpost, the military said.

Many of the militants in Swat infiltrated from al Qaeda and Taliban enclaves in ethnic Pashtun lands on the Afghan border to support a radical cleric, Mullah Fazlullah.

They have shot, blown up or beheaded their opponents, banned girls from classes and destroyed about 170 schools while broadcasting edicts and threats over their illegal FM radio.

They have threatened to throw acid at men who do not grow beards and recently murdered a woman singer.

Daniel Toole, South Asia regional director for UNICEF, said on Friday the school attacks "rob children of their basic right to education and have a devastating impact on their lives".

While dismayed by the spread of militant influence and violence, many valley residents are equally frustrated with the failure of the authorities to stop them, analysts say.

"Hatred against the Taliban ... is at an all-time high and so is disappointment, even resentment, about the Pakistani army for its failure to stop the Taliban," academic Farhat Taj wrote in the News newspaper on Friday.

"SICK AND TIRED"

The military launched a big offensive in Swat in late 2007. The militants withdrew up remote side valleys to avoid government artillery and slipped back later. Another offensive was launched in August, but it too has had little impact.

Members of parliament this week decried the state of affairs, passing a resolution expressing solidarity with the valley's people and pledging to "stand up for the protection of their rights in the face of the onslaught by non-state actors".

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told parliament that military action alone could not end violence in the country and the government would also consult political leaders on a plan.

President Asif Ali Zardari met security chiefs and politicians on Thursday to discuss the violence in Swat and elsewhere in the northwest, and said the government was following a "three D" policy of dialogue, development and deterrence.

Authorities have struck short-lived peace deals in the Pashtun northwest in the past, but the United States and others say the pacts have merely provided breathing space to militants to regroup and attack across the border into Afghanistan.

Talks are popular with many Pakistanis who see the U.S.-led campaign against militancy as an unjust fight against Muslims.

But not all Pakistanis think that way.

"The Pashtun are sick and tired of this dialogue and the so-called peace agreements with the Taliban. They want the Taliban brought by force under Pakistani law," Taj said.