Taleban fighters and Pakistani officials have agreed to a “permanent ceasefire” in the northwestern Swat valley, a senior government official said on Saturday. Taleban commander Maulana Fazlullah, also known as Mullah Radio because he uses illegal FM radio to spread his message, was expected to announce the ceasefire later. “They have made a commitment that they will observe a permanent ceasefire and we'll do the same,” Syed Mohammad Javed, the Commissioner of Malakand, told reporters after meeting with elders in Swat. Around 1,200 people have been killed and between 250,000 and 500,000 people have fled the valley which lies within the Malakand division of North West Frontier Province. Western governments, and many Pakistanis, have been alarmed by the government's offer to reinstate Islamic sharia law in Malakand if the Taleban agreed to peace. They fear that a ceasefire could result in another sanctuary in Pakistan where al Qaeda and Taleban militants could move freely, and also worry that Taleban fighters elsewhere in the region will be encouraged by the government's move. Last Sunday, Islamist militants called a 10-day ceasefire in the valley as a “goodwill gesture” towards the peace talks. Javed said efforts were being made to persuade the Taleban to allow girls' schools to reopen. Militants had torched around 200 girls' schools in Swat in a campaign against female education. Boys' schools will reopen on Monday. The ceasefire announcement came a day after Fazlullah met his father-in-law, Maulana Sufi Mohammad, a radical cleric freed by the government to negotiate peace. In principle The deal was agreed in principle on Monday by the government for NWFP and Sufi Mohammad, who then carried back the proposals to Fazlullah. He is said to have forged links with other Pakistani jihadi groups and al Qaeda. Sufi Mohammad led a revolt in 1994 in an attempt to bring Islamic sharia law back to Swat, and went on to lead an army of thousands of tribesmen in a futile attempt to help Taleban and al Qaeda fighters hold off US
