was stalling the implementation of sharia courts in the Swat valley. President Asif Ali Zardari refused to sign any agreement until peace had been restored in the valley but failed to elaborate on how those conditions would be achieved. However, the president signed the Nizam-e-Adl-Regulation law for Swat, after it was hurriedly pushed through the national parliament a few hours earlier on 13 April 2009. On 19 April 2009 Sufi Muhammad declared that "democracy was un-Islamic" and that decisions made in the qazi courts could not be appealed in Pakistan's central judicial system. According to the cleric Western-style democracy had led to divides among Pakistanis and the judicial system had contributed to the factionalism. He ordered the central government to withdraw all judges from Malakand within four days and to set up a Darul Qaza, an Islamic supreme court, to hear appeals from local Sharia courts. Arrest On 3 June 2009, while engaging in Operation Black Thunderstorm against the Taliban, the Pakistani Army arrested senior aides to Sufi Muhammad in the Amandara region in Lower Dir. Among those aides arrested were Muhammad's deputy, Mohammad Alam, and his spokesperson, Ameer Izzat Khan. Initial reports indicated that Sufi Muhammad himself and possibly two of his sons had also been detained, though government sources would not confirm and would only say they knew of his whereabouts. TNSM sources confirmed that Sufi Muhammad and his sons were missing, but suggested that he had gone into hiding. On 26 July 2009, the government announced the arrest of the cleric for encouraging violence and terrorism. On 2 August 2009, police announced that he had been charged with sedition, aiding terrorism and conspiracy. In January 2011, Sufi Muhammad denied to an anti-terrorism court that he had any links to the anti-state Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and that he only sought enforcement of sharia in Malakand. Death Sufi Muhammad died from kidney failure and diabetes on 11 July 2019 at the age of 86. References 1933 births 2019 deaths Pashtun people People from Lower Dir District Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan members Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Pakistani Islamists Pakistani Wahhabists Ahl-i Hadith people Leaders of Islamic terror groups