The government of
Pakistan announced on Monday that it would accept Islamic Sharia Law to
be implemented in its Swat Valley region, as part of a truce with local
Taliban leaders. Militants had been demanding Sharia law, attacking
opponents, burning scores of girls' schools and banning many forms of
entertainment. Gun battles between Pakistani security forces and
militants have killed hundreds, while up to a third of the valley's 1.5
million people have fled. A nuclear power with a growing economy,
Pakistan's government is still struggling for control of the country,
coping with internal clashes and terrorism, that can bleed over and
involve neighbors and allies, including militant attacks in India, and
excursions into Afghanistan - inviting U.S. military operations that
follow the attackers back into Pakistan. Collected here are 40 recent
photos from Pakistan, with a special acknowledgement to the artistry of
AP Photographer Emilio Morenatti. (40 photos total)
Imran
Zargul, 71, from the Pakistani tribal region of Bajur waits for donated
food during a distribution at the Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar,
Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 13, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Supporters
of the Islamist political part Jamaat-e-Islami take part in a protest
to show their solidarity with Kashmiris during an anti-India rally to
mark Kashmir Solidarity Day, in Lahore, Pakistan on February 5, 2009.
(REUTERS/Mohsin Raza)
Younis
Khan, captain of the Pakistan national cricket team is bowled by Sri
Lanka's Nuwan Kulasekara (not pictured) during their second one-day
international cricket match at the National Stadium in Karachi, Pakistan
on January 21, 2009. (REUTERS/Athar Hussain)
A
man holds two sheep on a motorcycle a long a road on the outskirts of
Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio
Morenatti)
Shiite
Muslim worshippers celebrate the end of Ashura by pounding their hands
on their chest during a procession in Islamabad , Pakistan, on Sunday,
Feb. 15, 2009. The holiday of Ashura is a time when Shiites remember the
death in A.D. 680 of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad,
the event that led to the split in Islam between Shiites and Sunni
Muslims. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A
Pakistani vendor waits for customers as he holds heart-shaped balloons
on a street in Islamabad on February 14, 2009. Valentine's Day has
gained popularity in Muslim-dominated Pakistan recently. (Farooq
Naeem/AFP/Getty Images)
Indian
fishermen stand in a police lockup in Karachi February 6, 2009.
Pakistani authorities have arrested 50 Indian fishermen and impounded
nine boats for illegally entering Pakistan's territorial waters, a
Pakistani security official said on Friday. (REUTERS/Athar Hussain)
Pakistani
men watch a local film in a cinema in Peshawar, Pakistan, Wednesday,
Jan. 28, 2009. Entertainers in northwest Pakistan face an escalating
threat from Taliban-led militants who consider music, singing and other
such arts un-Islamic. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A
Pakistani man waits for customers at his photo studio decorated with
film stars in Peshawar, Pakistan, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009. Entertainers
in northwest Pakistan have been kidnapped and killed by Taliban-led
militants, while others have fled, quit or watched work opportunities
dwindle. Criminal gangs seeking to extort money are believed to have
gotten in on the act as overall security deteriorates. (AP Photo/Emilio
Morenatti)
Afghan
refugees weave carpet at the Kochi refugee camp on the outskirts of
Karachi, Pakistan February 12, 2009. There are two million Afghans now
in Pakistan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.
(REUTERS/Athar Hussain)
Afghan refugee children play in the Kochi refugee camp on the outskirts of Karachi February 12, 2009. (REUTERS/Athar Hussain)
Thousands
of local residents hold a rally against the ongoing Pakistani military
operations, demanding peace in the region, in Barikot near Mingora, in
Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009. Pakistan's
military has vowed to reinvigorate its efforts in Swat, a formerly
peaceful region where Taliban militants have gained ground during 18
months of fighting. (AP Photo/Sherin Zada)
A
Pakistani man waits next to his tools to be hired as a day laborer in a
street in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009. (AP
Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Muslim
devotees light oil lamps at the shrine of Muslim saint Data Ganj Bakhsh
in Lahore February 14, 2009. Thousands of devotees from all over the
country were expected to attend the three-day festival to mark the
anniversary of the death of the saint. (REUTERS/Mohsin Raza)
A
model displays a creation of Pakistani designer Shar during a fashion
show celebrating Valentine's Day in Lahore, Pakistan on February 14,
2009. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)
Hands
reach up for free food handouts at the shrine of the Muslim saint Data
Ganj Bakhsh in Lahore February 15, 2009. (REUTERS/Mohsin Raza)
Tribesmen
gather near a damaged bridge after it was blown up by suspected
militants in a tribal area near Khyber Pass on the outskirts of Peshawar
February 3, 2009. Suspected militants blew up the bridge, cutting the
main route for supplies bound for Western forces in Afghanistan,
Pakistani government officials said. (REUTERS/Adil Khan)
Soldiers
of Pakistan's paramilitary force guard a newly built bridge to lead a
trailer truck with U.S. and NATO supplies into Pakistani tribal area of
Khyber neighboring Afghanistan on Friday, Feb. 6, 2009. A suicide car
bomber blew himself up in the troubled Khyber tribal region after tribal
police signaled him to halt during a routine check, government official
said. (AP Photo/Qazi Tariq)
Pakistani
police officers collect evidence next to a U.N. vehicle rammed against a
wall, where an American U.N. official was kidnapped, in the southwest
city of Quetta, Pakistan on Monday, Feb. 2, 2009. Gunmen kidnapped an
American U.N. official named John Solecki and killed his driver in
southwest Pakistan on Monday, police said. Solecki is still being held
by a group calling themselves the Baluchistan Liberation United Front,
who have threatened to kill him unless 141 prisoners were released by
Pakistan. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)
20
A devotee smokes hashish at the shrine of Muslim saint Data Ganj Bakhsh in Lahore February 16, 2009. (REUTERS/Mohsin Raza) #
Pakistani
police officers and media gather around the bodies of militants killed
in a gun battle with police, at police headquarter in Peshawar,
Pakistan, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009. The police killed nine militants in
the clash, and foiled an attempt to kidnap a person in the city, a
police official said. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
Residents
carry an elderly woman on a cot as they flee from an area in Pakistan's
troubled Swat Valley February 2, 2009. Caught between the Pakistani
military and their Taliban militants, thousands of civilians are fleeing
from fighting in northwest Pakistan's Swat valley. (REUTERS/Abdul
Rehman)
A
Pakistani man and child ride a bicycle on the outskirts of Islamabad,
Pakistan, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A
Pakistani gunman is seen at the scene of a bombing in Peshawar,
Pakistan, on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009. A car bomb exploded near the
residence of a local government official, killing six people and
wounding 12 others on the outskirts of the main northwest city of
Peshawar, a police official said. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
Paramedic
staff provides treatment to a victim of a bomb blast at a local
hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan on February 17, 2009. A car bomb killed
five people and wounded 16 on Tuesday outside the home of an official
who was raising a militia to fight Islamist militants in northwestern
Pakistan, witnesses and police said. (REUTERS/Ali Imam)
Students
of the Jamia Binoria Al-Almia seminary sit for the exams for religious
scholars in Karachi February 1, 2009. Some seventeen hundred students
sat for the examination this year. (REUTERS/Athar Hussain)
A
Pakistani barber cuts the hair of a boy in a barber shop on the
outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, Jan. 31, 2009. (AP
Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pervez
Chachar and his wife Humera Kambo sit in a makeshift room in police
headquarters in Karachi January 16, 2009. After falling in love and
marrying without their families' permission, the newlyweds (from rival
tribes) dare not venture out of the police station as they fear their
families will hunt them down and kill them to preserve the families'
honor. (REUTERS/Athar Hussain)
A
Pakistani man peels corncobs in a vegetables market in Rawalpindi,
Pakistan, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A
displaced Pakistani child tends to his sheep near a makeshift camp at a
secure location in troubled Swat Valley on February 7, 2009. Local
officials said last week that 20,000 people had fled Swat recently. A
lucrative tourist industry for Western and Pakistani holidaymakers after
skiing and mountain hikes now lies decimated. Thousands of followers of
radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah are waging a violent campaign to
impose their extremist interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, beheading
opponents, threatening detractors and fighting the government. (CHAND
KHAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Residents
stand at a damaged school building after it was blown up by militants
in Swat Valley January 26, 2009. Militants blew up a government high
school, district officials said. Schools are closed for a winter break
and no one was hurt. Militants have destroyed more than 180 valley
schools, most of them for girls. (REUTERS/Abdul Rehman)
Delegation
members of Pakistani Islamist leader Sufi Mohammad from the Swat valley
arrive to attend a meeting with government officials, political and
religious leaders in Peshawar February 16, 2009. Pakistan agreed to
introduce Islamic law in Swat valley and neighbouring areas of the
northwest on Monday in a bid to take the steam out of a Taliban uprising
raging since late 2007. (REUTERS/Ali Imam)
Girls read at a school after schools reopened in Swat Valley February 17, 2009. (REUTERS/Abdul Rehman)
Pakistani
tribesmen hold funeral prayers for victims of Saturday's missile attack
in the tribal region in Miranshah, near the Afghan border February 15,
2009. A U.S. missile attack killed at least 25 al Qaeda-linked militants
in a Pakistani tribal region on Saturday, security and Taliban
officials said, the highest death toll of militants in a single such
strike. (REUTERS/Stringer)
An
Afghan soldier stands guard at the border with Pakistan near Nawapass
village, Kunar province, in eastern Afghanistan February 6, 2009.
(REUTERS/Oleg Popov)
A
Shiite Muslim worshipper flagellates himself with knives to celebrate
the end of Ashura during a procession in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on
Monday, Feb. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A
Shiite Muslim worshipper receives medical care in a clinic, after
flagellating himself with knives in a procession in Rawalpindi,
Pakistan, on Monday, Feb. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
People
walk past a boy playing marbles in the street in Rawalpindi , Pakistan,
Monday, Feb. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pakistani
Christians pray for civilians from the troubled Swat Valley in
Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A
Pakistani child looks on as women covered with burqas from the tribal
region of Bajur and Mohmand agency wait to be registered at the Jalozai
refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Jan. 30, 2009. More than
200,000 people have fled the fighting in Bajur and Mohmand agency to
camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
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