Pakistan nets top Taliban leader
A top Afghan Taliban leader has been captured in Pakistan in what would be the fourth detention in recent weeks of senior members of the insurgent group, US media reported yesterday.
Mullah Abdul Kabir, a member of the militia's ruling council, was picked up several days ago in Nowshera district in Pakistan's northwest, according to reports in The New York Times and Washington Post that cited unnamed Pakistani security officials.
While Pakistan's motive behind the recent arrests of top Taliban leaders Mullah Kabir and Mullah Baradar remains unclear, the shift in Islamabad's policy towards the Taliban is apparent, US military experts have said.
"This indicates Baradar was not a one off or an accident but a turning point in Pakistan's policy toward the Taliban," the New York Times quoted Bruce Riedel, a researcher at Brookings Institution and a former CIA official, as saying.
"We still need to see how far it goes, but for Obama and Nato this is the best possible news. If the safe haven is closing then the Taliban are in trouble," he added.
For years, Pakistani military and intelligence leaders have supported the Taliban, even as Pakistan's leaders claimed to be allies of the United States.
The Pakistani interest in the Taliban has always been as a means to influence events inside Afghanistan, particularly if the Americans leave.
Pakistani officials declined to confirm the arrest reports to The Associated Press.
If confirmed, the arrest would be a further sign that Pakistan is turning away from its old strategy of allowing Afghan Taliban leaders safe haven in the country something that could have far-reaching implications for the US-led war in Afghanistan.
Last week, Pakistani and American officials said the No 2 Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had been caught some 10 days earlier in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.
Comments