Pakistan arrests pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad

ISLAMABAD -- A Pakistani minister says authorities have arrested pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad, who brokered a now-failed peace deal between the government and militants in the Swat Valley.

Mian Iftikhar, information minister for the North West Frontier Province, said police arrested Mohammed on Sunday in Peshawar for speaking against the government and encouraging violence and terrorism.

The influential cleric negotiated a peace deal with the government in February that was widely seen as allowing the Taliban to take control of the valley. But the deal collapsed in April when the Taliban advanced into neighboring districts, triggering a military offensive that prompted a spree of retaliatory attacks by militants in the northwest and beyond.