Pakistani Taliban withdraws from key valley

BUNER, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani Taliban commander withdrew his fighters from a key northwestern valley on Friday, amid growing alarm in the United States that the Taliban were creeping closer to the capital of nuclear-armed Pakistan.

Fears for Pakistan's stability have heightened in the past week after the Taliban took control of Buner, a valley just 100 km (60 miles) and less than five hours drive from Islamabad.

The order for the Taliban's retreat from Buner was given by Fazlullah, the Taliban commander in neighboring Swat valley, where the government has already caved in to militants' demands for the imposition of Islamic law.

"Our leader has ordered that Taliban should immediately be called back from Buner," Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told Reuters. He said there were only around 100 fighters in Buner.

Government and Taliban representatives went to Buner, along with Maulana Sufi Mohammad, a radical Muslim cleric who brokered the Swat deal, to tell the fighters to vacate the district.

Mehmood Khan, an aide to Fazlullah, said the militants were returning to Swat, and witnesses saw them leaving Buner in the early evening.

It was unclear whether the withdrawal was in response to a carrot or a stick, and worries abound over whether Pakistan lacks the capacity and intent to fight militancy.

Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani issued a statement aimed at dispelling those doubts and calming a mounting sense of crisis.

The army "will not allow the militants to dictate terms to the government or impose their way of life on the civil society of Pakistan," the statement quoted Kayani as saying.

Kayani's comments, issued after meeting with his commanders, reinforced expectations of an imminent offensive in Swat, analysts said.

The Taliban spokesman was quoted in the past week as saying al Qaeda would be given refuge in lands under Taliban control.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Pakistan's policies in Swat abdicated authority to the Taliban, while Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged Pakistani leaders to act against foes who posed an "existential threat" to the state.

Pakistan's top diplomat in Britain said Clinton was "rather overstretching the issue," adding there was no question of giving in to the militants.

"We will not allow Pakistani territory to be abdicated to anybody. We will fight for every inch...," Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's High Commissioner in London, told Reuters.

He said his personal view was that U.S. President Barack Obama's plan for fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, which broadens the focus to Pakistan, was the "wrong strategy."

"Pakistan is a semi-developed country and Afghanistan is not at all developed. They have never had any rule of law in their country. You can't club the two countries (together)," he said.