Doubts cloud Pakistan Taliban truce

Pakistan has rejected reports that the government has broken a peace deal with the Pakistani Taliban in the volatile Swat valley.   However, Rehman Malik, the interior minster, implied on Monday that talks with the Taliban are being watched very closely and that the government is losing patience with them due to continued attacks in the region.

Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, had earlier quoted Malik as saying that escalating violence against government forces meant there was no point in continuing with the deal signed last month.

"The interior minister, in spite of the fact that he has refuted those reports, has admitted that there has been an escalation," Hyder said, "and that if the government did lose its patience and the militants in that area did not stop their activities then the deal would be off."   Hyder said that the government was talking from a position of strength having fortified positions and moved the military into the Swat valley.   "The government's contention is that as long as those people do not allow the government to re-establish its power over the entire region, then they will not give in to any of their [the Taliban's] demands.  

'Warning shot'  

"Many analysts are looking at this as a warning shot by the government to the Taliban, saying to them that the challenge to the government is unacceptable," Hyder said.  

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