The Taleban announced a 10-day cease-fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley on Sunday after freeing a Chinese hostage during peace talks with the government, while an abducted American threatened with imminent death by his kidnappers remained missing. Past peace deals with militants, including in Swat, have failed. Any agreement this time could spark renewed US. criticism that peace talks merely give militants time to regroup and rearm. The Swat Valley was once a tourist haven and is now believed to be mostly under control of the militants, who have long demanded imposition of Islamic, or Shariah, law. Regaining Swat is a major test for Pakistan's shaky civilian government because, unlike the semiautonomous tribal regions along the Afghan border where Al-Qaeda and Taleban have long thrived, the valley is supposed to be fully under its control. A string of recent attacks on foreigners - including the apparent beheading of a Polish geologist - have underscored the deteriorating security conditions. On Friday, the kidnappers of American UN official John Solecki threatened to kill him within 72 hours and issued a 20-second video of the blindfolded captive saying he was “sick and in trouble.” UN officials said Sunday they were still trying to establish contact with the gunmen who seized Solecki on Feb. 2 in Quetta, a southwestern city near the Afghan border. The kidnappers have identified themselves as members of the previously unknown Baluchistan Liberation United Front, indicating a link to separatists rather than to Islamists.The captors have demanded the release of 141 women allegedly detained in Pakistan, but Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik has denied that the 141 are being held. Baluchistan provincial government spokesman Syed Kamran said it was offering a $31,363 reward “for any information leading to the recovery of the kidnapped UN official.”
