Afghan gov't demands extradition of captured Taliban leaders from Pakistan

Zamari Bashari, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, speaks during a press conference held in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Feb. 25, 2010. Afghan Interior Ministry said Thursday that the Pakistani authorities have agreed to handover Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the seized number two leader of the Taliban, to Afghanistan. (Xinhua Photo)

KABUL, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan government had demanded the extradition of Taliban leaders who were arrested by Pakistani police recently, spokesman for Interior Ministry Zamarai Bashari said Thursday.

"In a tripartite meeting held in Islamabad on Wednesday and attended by Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, his Pakistani counterpart Rahman Malik and FBI chief, the Afghan side demanded the extradition of 42 Afghans including Mullah Baradar," Bashari told a news conference.

The Afghan interior minister at the meeting handed over a list containing 42 names including Mullah Baradar and Mullah Abdul Kabir and demanded their extradition, Bashari said, adding the Pakistani side agreed in principle to extradite them.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the second-in-command of Taliban outfit, and Mullah Abdul kabir, another Key Taliban leader, have been detained by Pakistani police over the past two weeks.

However, Bashari did not set a time for their extradition; saying he cannot predict a time for their handover to Afghanistan.

the Afghan side demanded the extradition of 42 Afghans including Mullah Baradar," Bashari told a news conference.

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Why is the FBI Director over there?

Legal proceedings?

From Belmont Club:

In the garden of bad and evil

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The New York Times quotes a Brookings scholar who believes that the sudden increase in the number of Taliban captured indicates that the Pakistani authorities have decided to move against them. The arrest of Mullah Kabir, a member of the Quetta Shura and associate of Mullah Omar, in an all-Pakistani operation, follows closely on the capture of “Mullah Mohammed Yunis, the Taliban’s shadow governor of Zabul Province”. Bruce Riedel of Brookings was moved to say that “this indicates Baradar was not a one off or an accident but a turning point in Pakistan’s policy toward the Taliban. 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.”

NATO is in need of good news. Defense Update says that the collapse of the Dutch government over the issue of continuing the Afghan mission could lead to a “domino effect” in which the departure of one puts an intolerable stress on all the rest. The departure of the Dutch would leave a hole in Urugzgan province. Australia has refused to take it over and Canada is committed to withdrawing 2,800 troops by 2011. But not everybody thinks the Pakistanis have turned on Taliban.

Steve Coll, writing in the New Yorker, argues that although the Taliban have now become a corrupt and hidebound organization in which there is ample reason for one to turn on the other, it remains in Pakistan’s best interests to keep it going. The hope that Islamabad will round completely on their proteges is to expect too much. The Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, has long used arrests to reshape the Taliban to their will — “striking against some Taliban factions in Pakistan but tolerating or helping others”. Coll believes the Pakistanis are moving against those who have started to bite the hand that feeds them.

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