Taliban extends cease-fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley

In an opinion article in the Los Angeles Times, Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and author of the books "Taliban" and "Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia," decried the Taliban's expanding role in Pakistan as an "extremist triumph."

He says the Swat peace deal is the largest capitulation to Taliban-style religious extremism yet seen in South Asia, and is a far larger concession to the militants than any deal ever made by former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf or current Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

However the deal may be interpreted, it is an unmistakable defeat in the country's losing battle against Islamic extremism. Even though the military regime of former President Pervez Musharraf entered into several controversial, short-lived cease-fires with the Pakistani Taliban in the Pashtun tribal belt, Musharraf's army never conceded major changes in the legal or political system. Even in Afghanistan, where the Afghan Taliban controls several provinces, the Kabul government has never conceded the writ of the state, insisting that such provinces remain contested.

Speaking to the Press Trust of India, Michael Kugelman, an expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center South Asia, agreed, calling the deal "a dramatic setback" in the American and Pakistani battle against radical Islam in South Asia.

He fears that the cease-fire will legitimize the implementation of Islamic law by the Taliban, who have been de facto imposing their interpretation of sharia in the region for over a year.

"Pakistan's military has been unable or unwilling to dislodge this presence," he said. "And this presence has led to dozens of police officers killed; dozens of destroyed girls' schools; and several hundred thousand Swat residents displaced from their homes." He said Pakistan probably reasons that the peace deal will legitimize something Islamabad has no ability to stop and that the ceasefire will bring "much-needed" breathing room and reduction in violence.

"One thing is clear, though: the deal is a powerful reminder of how Pakistan has changed. Swat Valley, long a honeymooner's paradise of lush greenery and spectacular mountain views with a secular outlook, has now officially become a Taliban stronghold," he added.

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