Taliban seizes Pakistan's Buner district

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, April 22 (UPI) -- Taliban militants have taken over the northwestern Pakistan district of Buner, only 60 miles from the capital of Islamabad, witnesses said.

Militants entered the district Tuesday after brief resistance from local residents and were patrolling its streets openly with no signs of government law enforcement personnel, Pakistan's English-language newspaper Dawn reported.

The move came after the Taliban last week imposed Shariah, or Islamic, law in the neighboring Swat Valley as part of a peace deal with the government. The militants in Buner robbed local governmental offices of supplies and equipment and were asking local people, particularly young men, to join them in their efforts to enforce Shariah, the newspaper said.

Pro-Taliban clerics in recent days have staged rallies in Swat and Islamabad, demanding that their strict interpretation of Shariah be imposed across Pakistan and beyond, CNN reported.

Speaking on television and in front of an audience of tens of thousands in the Swat Valley Sunday, cleric Sufi Muhammed declared democracy and Pakistan's judicial system "un-Islamic," the U.S. broadcaster said.