Trial of 3,000 militants begin Aug 1 in Pakistan

PESHAWAR - The trial will begin here Aug 1 of some 3,000 militants arrested during last year’s military operations against the Taliban in Pakistan’s restive northwest, a media report Wednesday said.

The militants will be split into two groups, with one lot being tried in Anti-Terrorism Courts and the other in Darul Qaza Islamic appellate courts, Online news agency reported.

The militants had been captured during the April-October 2009 military offensive against the Taliban in the Malakand division of the North West Frontier Province, now renamed Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa.

The operations were launched after the Taliban reneged on a controversial peace deal with the NWFP under which they were to lay down their arms in return for the imposition of Sharia laws in the province. Instead, they moved out of their Swat headquarters and occupied Buner district, which is just 100 km from Pakistani capital Islamabad.

The military says it killed some 3,000 militants during the operations but these figures are not independently verifiable as the media was barred from the area.

With the Malakand division now cleared of the Taliban, the military operations have now shifted to the South Waziristan region along the border with Afghanistan and are also being planned in North Waziristan.

The Darul Qaza courts were established as part of the deal with the NWFP government.