Pakistan to release Maulana Sufi Muhammad

This makes me want to throw something at somebody.

Pakistan to release Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the firebrand religious cleric and leader of the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi or Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws, was arrested in 2002 after he led 10,000 fighters into Afghanistan to join the Taliban.

His movement was banned by Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf. Sources inside Pakistan's interior ministry told Adnkronos International (AKI) that Muhammad has been shifted to a safe house under an agreement aimed at having him broker a peace deal with his al-Qaeda backed son-in-law Mullah Fazlullah in the Swat valley in northwest Pakistan and in the tribal area of Bajaur.

Fazlullah is a pro-Taliban cleric who has been engaged in fierce battles with the security forces in the Swat valley. The militants have been fighting for Sharia or Islamic law. "We have also learnt that our father will be released," Moulvi Rizwan, Muhammad's son told AKI in a telephone interview. "Our movement is peaceful and we consider the Pakistan army, our army. We will continue our struggle through peaceful means," said Rizwan.

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