Posted on 03/04/2007 9:29:37 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
QUETTA, Pakistan (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.
Editors Choice: Best pictures
from the last 24 hours.
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 organizing 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 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 defense 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.
Editors Choice: Best pictures
from the last 24 hours.
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)
Gloomy is good for the Taliban...ping!
The Pakis arresting them are doing them a favor. Otherwise they will end up just like all their buddies, torn to pieces via US and NATO rounds.
They were never any fun anyway! :)
I'd much prefer moribund.
Gloom, doom and the Taliban. It's a great fit.
If the Taliban are gloomy, then so are Democrats.
Gloomy?
Hell, I prefer the bastards DEAD - not gloomy.
Semper Fi
your Earlier reports:
Taliban officials confirm capture of two leaders (Confirmed directly to NBC)
Afghanistan/Pakistan - Taliban concede capture of Obaidullah, at last
***************************************
Pakistani security forces raided at the Gul Park Hotel in Quetta, the capital of Balouchistan province, and arrested Ameer Khan Haqani, commander of Zabul province in Afghanistan, and Jaland Abdullah Sarhadi of Kandahar.
Sarhadi had been detained for more than three years in Guantanamo Bay after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. He was later released by U.S. authorities.
Cheney must have invited Musharraf quail hunting.
Kunar Operation as 2 Taliban leaders captured in Pakistan
**************************EXCERPTS*************************
U.S. forces attack a HVT in Kunar; two Taliban leaders confirmed captured in Pakistan; Mullah Dadullah speaks
U.S. forces attack a HVT in Kunar; two Taliban leaders confirmed captured in Pakistan; Mullah Dadullah speaks
![]() |
Mullah Dadullah on Al Jazeera. |
Just days after the announced capture of Taliban leader Mullah Obaidullah Akhund was arrested in Pakistan, U.S. and Afghan forces are said to be on a major offensive in Kunar province, one of the most violent in Afghanistan. The target is said to be a High Value Target, possibly Osama bin Laden or another senior al-Qaeda leader. "According to eyewitnesses and local reporters in Kunar province, Coalition forces launched a fierce attack on a small enclave in the village of Mandaghel, approximately 17 miles from the border with Pakistan, on Friday afternoon," <em>ABC News' The Blotter reported. "Warplanes pounded the positions; U.S. special forces and Afghan National Army soldiers moved in shortly afterwards."
The joint U.S. and Afghan force is said to have struck at the compound of an "Islamic militant and suspected drug trafficker named Haji Aminullah." Kunar province has long been an al-Qaeda stronghold, notes The Blotter. The battle is said to be ongoing for the past 2 days.
Kunar also sits across the border from Bajaur agency in Pakistan, where Faqir Mohammed's Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (or TNSM, which translates to the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Sharia), the Pakistani Taliban rules and al-Qaeda maintains a command and control center to direct operations into eastern and northern Afghanistan.
As the Kunar operation is underway, unnamed Pakistani sources are indicating that two additional Taliban commanders have been captured. Amir Khan Haqqani, the Taliban commander commander of Zabul province in Afghanistan, and Jaland Abdullah Sarhadi, who was released from Guantanamo Bay after three years in detention, were captured in the Gul Park Hotel in Quetta. This is the same location where Mullah Obaidullah was captured.
Pakistani sources are saying that "Mullah Obaidullah has been taken to the capital, Islamabad where a team of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials will assist in the interrogation process," according to NBC News.
ROFL!
But only the Pakis's can do the ultimate....waterboarding....
All too easy. What else does Mushie know that he and the Pakis are holding back?
OMG! That's one of the funniest lines I've seen on FR in MONTHS!!! (You really nailed that one!!!)
I like it....keep them gloomy...send Cheney often...
We'll just have to send Cheney over more often.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.