PESHAWAR, Oct 18: The federal government is seriously considering a phased operation to check growing militancy and improve deteriorating law and order situation in the NWFP, credible sources said.

The fast deteriorating law and order situation in parts of the province was discussed at a high-level meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday, co-chaired by President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the sources said. According to them, Chief Secretary Sahibzada Riaz Noor made a detailed presentation and suggested steps that were required to be taken to stem the tide of militancy in the province, particularly in southern and northern districts.

One source said that the federal government had given a go-ahead to law-enforcement agencies to prepare their own plans on how, when and where to take action.

The NWFP government was assured of full support and cooperation from the federal government and law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. It was further assured that the military would be made available as and when required.

The source said that government officials and law-enforcement agencies were now prioritising areas where action was immediately required.

“It is still in the planning stages,” said one source, adding that any decision about when and where to strike first would be taken by the provincial government. “The military can be called to help the civil administration if required,” the source said.

Police would be the lead agency in any such crackdown and all means would be made available to them to achieve the objectives, the source said.

These sources refused to give a timeframe for any action due to sensitivity of the information, but said that efforts were being made to improve the law and order situation ahead of the national elections due early next year.

They were also reluctant to discuss the stage-I of the impending operation, but there were indications that the provincial government would first contemplate action in the northern district of Swat.

One official said that the government was considering using political as well as non-political means, including the use of force, to rein in militants in certain pockets.

The federal government had moved army to Swat in July this year, but the provincial government distanced itself from the decision of sending troops to the region and, therefore, no action could be taken.

Caretaker Chief Minister Shamsul Mulk convened a jirga of elders and influential people from Swat at the Frontier House on Friday to discuss the situation and try to neutralise Maulana Fazlullah, the FM Radio cleric, whose Shura has started dispensing Islamic justice in the district.

A similar effort launched by former chief minister Akram Khan Durrani early this year had failed and police withdrew from checkpoints in certain areas following a spate of roadside bombings. Armed volunteers of Maulana Fazlullah established their own checkpoints and began patrolling.

But some officials are quite, and one of them, pointed out that hundreds of such decisions had been taken in the past, but none of those decisions was implemented.

Part of the problem, said the official, was lack of implementation mechanism and official leadership at the district level that was abolished under the controversial devolution plan introduced by Gen Musharraf in 2001.

Meanwhile, Maulana Fazlullah told Dawn that he and his comrades espoused peace and wanted enforcement of Sharia.

He claimed that his movement for the enforcement of Sharia was peaceful and his volunteers had to step in to check the deteriorating law and order situation when police withdrew and confined themselves to the district headquarters of Mingora.

The Maulana further asserted that the government had deliberately withdrawn police from checkpoints to shift the blame of worsening law and order on him.

“That’s why I convened a meeting of our Shura and decided to form our own ‘Shaheen Commando Force’ of armed volunteers.”

He defended the public flogging of men allegedly involved in the abduction of two women and said that this was part of the drive to enforce Sharia and improve law and order.

He accused the government and police of abandoning their responsibility and compelling him and his men to raise arms to protect the people.

“The administration even withdrew traffic police to create problems and turn the people against us,” he said.

Pledging to continue his struggle for the enforcement of Sharia, come what may, Fazlullah warned the government against taking any action.

“We are not weak,” he declared.

Hameedullah Khan contributed to this article from Swat.