Minister promises girls' education in Swat Valley

MINGORA, Pakistan -  Girls in Pakistan’s Swat Valley will be allowed to attend school but must wear veils in line with local norms, a top official said Monday following a government pledge to impose Islamic law during peace talks with Taliban militants there.

Provincial chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti also said the government would do its best to install religious judges by a mid-March deadline demanded by a hardline cleric mediating the talks.

Taliban fighters in Swat have destroyed scores of girls’ schools in fighting that stretches back more than a year, and at one point declared a ban on female education in the one-time tourist haven.

Many girls’ schools have reopened since a cease-fire took hold last month, but the government’s pledge to impose Islamic law in the northwest valley has raised the question of whether it will interpret religious rules as harshly as many in the Taliban.

The Swat Taliban and the military agreed last month to an open-ended cease-fire after months of fighting that has killed hundreds and displaced up to one-third of the valley’s 1.5 million residents.