Taliban fighters in Ghazni province, Afghanistan – 23 January 2010
Mullah Baradar is believed to have run the Taliban’s forces in Afghanistan
Pakistan has confirmed that a Taliban suspect captured earlier this month is one of the organisation’s top leaders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
A military spokesman said the delay in confirmation had been due to “detailed identification procedures”.
US and Pakistani agents had seized Mullah Baradar in Karachi on 8 February, US officials said on Tuesday.
But a Taliban spokesman has said Mullah Baradar, thought to be their second-in-command, is free and in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, told the BBC that Mullah Baradar was being questioned.
He called it an “important arrest”, but gave no other details.
A military statement said several people had been arrested in the same raid but revealed little else “due to security reasons”.
There was no confirmation from Pakistani officials that it had been a joint US-Pakistani operation that netted the man thought to have been running the Taliban’s military operations in Afghanistan.
Getting tough
Mullah Baradar is also believed to have run Taleban’s leadership council and control their finances.
The news of his arrest came as Nato forces and Afghan troops are conducting a major offensive against the Taliban in southern Helmand province, an area Mullah Baradar is believed to have been responsible for.
MULLAH BARADAR
Second-in-charge behind Taliban founder Mullah Omar
In charge of Taliban’s military operations and financial affairs
Born in Dehrawood district, Uruzgan province, in 1968
Former deputy defence minister for the Taliban regime
Source: Interpol, news agencies
Profile: Mullah Baradar
Is the arrest a breakthrough?
NY Times explains news delay
His influence is said to be second only to that of the Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullar Muhammad Omar, who has been hiding from Western agencies since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001.
The arrest suggests Pakistan is getting tough with Afghan Taliban leaders sheltering there, says the BBC’s Orla Guerin in Islamabad, something that has long been a demand of the White House.
It could also put pressure on other Taliban leaders to enter into talks with the Afghan government and coalition forces, something Mullah Baradar is believed to favour, our correspondent says.
Afghan and Nato leaders have said reconciliation talks with more moderate Taliban members could be pursued to end the insurgency.
Drone attacks
Meanwhile, missiles fired by a suspected US drone aircraft have killed at least three militants in north-west Pakistan, security officials say.
The attack targeted a compound in Tapi Tolkhel village, 15km (9.3 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, by the Afghan border.
The regions of North and South Waziristan are known sanctuaries for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who move easily across the mountainous border into Afghanistan.
They are frequently targeted by drone attacks, and there have been more than a dozen such strikes in 2010 alone.
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