MINGORA: Thousands of men in turbans Wednesday marched for peace in Pakistan's troubled Swat valley, led by the cleric who signed a deal to enforce Islamic law in a bid to quell a bloody insurgency.
'I have come here to establish peace and I will not leave until this mission is achieved,' the elderly Sufi Mohammad, leader of the Sharia movement, told the crowd in Mingora, the main town in the former holiday resort of Swat.
Police and witnesses estimated that 15,000 people marched in the crowd, waving black and white flags as they paraded through town with the cleric, who advised them to recite only verses from the Holy Quran.
The male gathering, mostly Mohammad's supporters, were mostly bearded and sporting black turbans. The elderly cleric walked behind several rows of followers marching hand-in-hand.
Local residents lined the main roads, greeting Mohammad, who was jailed in Pakistan for six years after returning from Afghanistan where he led thousands of supporters to fight against US-led troops who toppled the Taliban in 2001.
Wearing a black waistcoat and white shalwar kamiz, Mohammad sported a long white beard, walked slowly and avoided the gaze of television cameras.
Amnesty International believes that over the past year, more than 1,200 people have been killed and 200,000-500,000 displaced from Swat as a result of fighting between hardliners trying to impose sharia and the government.
Monday's controversial deal between Mohammad and the Pakistani government to enforce sharia law has sparked concern from NATO and India and muted comment from Washington, which considers extremists in northwest Pakistan a direct threat.
The cleric left Mingora later Wednesday for the nearby town of Matta, where he was hoping to meet firebrand Maulana Fazlullah and Taliban leaders in an effort to persuade them to disarm, his spokesman Amir Izzat said.
No date for any meeting has been announced.
Fazlullah, who is believed to live in mountains just outside Matta, has led a nearly two-year, terrifying campaign to enforce sharia in Swat while his father-in-law Mohammad was languishing in a Pakistani jail.
Thousands of Fazlullah's men have spent two years beheading opponents, bombing schools, outlawing entertainment and fighting government forces in Swat, a former ski resort, causing tens of thousands of people to flee.
It remains unclear how much influence Mohammad can bring to bear over his firebrand son-in-law, who is believed to have around 3,000 armed followers.
Pakistan has denied that the deal is a 'concession' to militants and hopes that Fazlullah's supporters will now disarm.
Senior provincial minister Bashir Bilor said Thursday he saw no hurdle in implementing the accord, despite the rapid unravelling of past peace deals.
'Our condition for accepting their demand was that they establish peace. We are hopeful, with the cooperation of Sufi Mohammad, we will restore peace,' he told a news conference in Mingora.
Slapping down scepticism he said: 'People should take the agreement in a positive manner.' Use of force alone cannot resolve the problems, he said.
The government will compensate civilians who suffered losses during military operations and reconstruction work will start once peace returns to the area, he said.
Analysts derided Monday's deal as a defeat that will embolden militants in the violent, nuclear-armed Muslim nation.
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