Replies

Taliban confirms key leader Obaidullah captured in Pak: Report

Islamabad, Mar 4: After initial denials, an "important" Taliban commander and a few other "officials" have admitted that their former Defence Minister Mulla Obaidullah Akhund has been captured in Pakistan`s Quetta city.

"One indication that the reports of his arrest are true is the fact that most of our military commanders and spokesmen have turned off their satellite phones. This has happened in the past also whenever someone important among the Taliban was captured," the Taliban military commander was quoted as saying by media.

Requesting anonymity, he told the media from an unknown location that "he was now 80 per cent convinced" that Mulla Obaidullah has indeed been arrested last week.

He had also confirmed the death of top Taliban military commander Mulla Akhtar Mohammad Usmani in a US and NATO airstrike in Helmand province in December last year at a time when Taliban spokesmen were vehemently denying the claim by Western forces about the target killing of one of the most wanted men in Afghanistan. Subsequently, the Taliban confirmed Usmani`s death.

"There is gloom in our ranks. Our Taliban comrades everywhere are sad. It would take some time to overcome the shock of the arrest," a Taliban "official" told media.

Close to Taliban supremo Mullah Omar and Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, Obaidullah is the most senior Taliban leader to be captured since the militia was ousted from Afghanistan in 2001 by a US-led coalition that is still hunting its top leaders.

The Taliban members said switching off of phones by their senior military commanders and spokesmen always brought bad news. They said this is a sign that something has gone wrong for the Taliban and before long their apprehensions turn out to be true.

One other reason for switching off phones is to evade arrest. After such high-profile arrests, important Taliban figures also try to change their satellite and other phones and change their place of hiding.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousaf Ahmadi, earlier, denied that Mulla Obaidullah had been arrested. He insisted their former Defence Minister was in Afghanistan and leading Taliban fighters. It was also suggested by certain Taliban quarters that another man named Obaidullah rather than Mulla Obaidullah was arrested in Quetta. A few reporters were also told that a videotape of Mulla Obaidullah would be made available to prove that he was still a free man. But it wasn`t said when the tape would become available.

Taliban sources said Mulla Obaidullah`s arrest appears to have been made on the basis of information that had come from US military authorities in Kandahar. However, Pakistani security officials have been telling reporters that the raid to net Mulla Obaidullah was carried out by members of law-enforcing forces and intelligence agencies. They gave no hint that the US military and secret services provided intelligence or other inputs that led to the arrest

The Pakistan government hasn`t officially and publicly confirmed the arrest of Mulla Obaidullah and certain other Taliban figures.

Interior minister Aftab Sherpao earlier said that five people had been arrested in Quetta and they appeared to be fairly "important". "We are still carrying out investigations. We cannot say anything about their identity," he added.

Pakistanis arrest 5 suspects; "Taliban gloomy"
By Gul Yousafzai

QUETTA, Pakistan, March 4 (Reuters) - Pakistani police arrested five suspected Afghan militants in a raid in the city of Quetta and a Pakistani newspaper said on Sunday the Taliban had conceded the arrest last week of one of their top leaders.

The five suspected militants were among 32 Afghans rounded up in the southwestern city where Pakistani security officials said senior Taliban leader Mullah Obaidullah Akhund was arrested last Monday.

"They are Afghans aged between 20 and 25 and they came from Waziristan," senior Quetta police officer Qazi Abdul Wahid said, referring to a volatile Pakistani region on the Afghan border where Taliban and al Qaeda operate.

Wahid did not say if the five were members of the Taliban but said they were seized with compromising Islamist documents. They were being interrogated, he said.

He said 27 other Afghans had been picked up in raids in the city on Saturday night and also were being questioned.

The Afghan government and foreign officials in Kabul have long said the Taliban were organising their insurgency against the Afghan government from Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province, which borders Afghanistan.

The insurgents have threatened to unleash a spring offensive in Afghanistan in coming weeks after the bloodiest year since their ouster in 2001.

Pakistan has been coming under mounting pressure from the United States and other Western governments with troops in Afghanistan to take action against Taliban operating from sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of the border.

Akhund's arrest came hours after a visit to Pakistan by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in which he asked Pakistan to do more against the Taliban.

"GLOOM"

The Pakistani government has not confirmed the arrest of the former Taliban defence minister, and a top member of the insurgents' leadership council.

Officials say the government is worried about a backlash from militants and Islamist political parties bitterly opposed to President Pervez Musharraf's alliance with the United States in its war on terrorism.

Taliban spokesman have denied Akhund was captured, but Pakistan's the News newspaper said a top Taliban commander and some Taliban officials reluctantly admitted reports of his arrest appeared to be true.

A Taliban official told the newspaper: "There is gloom in our ranks. It would take some time to overcome the shock of the arrest."

In Quetta, extra security forces has been deployed at government buildings and in various public places.

Pakistan has been in the grip of a security scare as militant groups sympathetic to al Qaeda and the Taliban have carried out a series of suicide and bomb attacks in various cities following a mid-January air strike on militant compounds in Waziristan.

Separately, suspected pro-Taliban militants blew up a barber shop and a music shop in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region on the Afghan border for violating orders to cease "un-Islamic" practices, officials and witnesses said.

No one was hurt in the Saturday night explosions, they said.

Under the austere version of religion followed by the Taliban, shaving and music are counter to Islam. Militants have warned barbers and shops selling music and video tapes to close.

A border security official in Pakistan's far southwest said authorities had arrested five foreign militants on Saturday in the city of Tuftan near the Iranian border.

The five -- from Russia, Turkey and Kyrgyzstan -- were arrested after crossing from Iran, the border official said.

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider)

Hi Ian,

Timing is everything. I'm currently pet sitting this weekend so when ExSoldier called I was able to get the word out immediately. I remember what ExSoldier once said about being in the right place at the right time. I'll post or relay info on ExSoldier as I hear.

Couple of notes on preparedness, any food containing water (like tuna) will freeze in cold weather (tuna sickles) as well as soda pop (which will burst the containers creating a mess). Also, butane lighters will not work below the freezing point unless you warm them up by putting them in your pocket for a while.

Always keep gas tanks at least half full.

I generally keep a weeks worth of food (crackers, tuna, granola bars, instant coffee, sugar), kitchen supplies (heavy paper plates, Styrofoam cups, plastic forks, spoons, paper towels, toilet paper, tin foil) in the truck tool box.

Survival gear kept in the truck consists of first aid kit, water filter, work gloves, nylon cord, flash lights, extra bulbs, extra batteries, bungee cords, Sterno, paraffin, waterproof matches, large tarp, sleeping pad.

Tools kept on truck are shovel, hatchet, wood/bone saw, propane stove, 2 small bottles of propane, screw drivers, wrenches, channel locks, jumper cables, 12V air compressor, tire plug kit.

This time of year I keep extra warm clothing in the truck as well.

Freeper Squantos once said about evacuating: If it takes longer than 15 minutes, you're doing it wrong.

For me, keeping supplies in the truck keep my evac plan within that allotted time frame.

AD