Taliban figure arrested in Pakistan
The ex-spokesman reportedly went there last year to mediate between factions.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistan has arrested a former Taliban spokesman who was released by Afghanistan in 2007 in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist, intelligence officials said yesterday - a high-profile catch at a time when many in the West are concerned that tension with India could distract Pakistan from fighting militants on the Afghan border.
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar sent his former spokesman, Ustad Mohammed Yasir, to Pakistan last year to mediate between two Taliban groups in the Mohmand tribal area on the Afghan border, an intelligence official said.
Many Taliban and al-Qaeda militants fled to Pakistan in 2001 after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime. The United States has pushed Pakistan to crack down on the militants, who have regrouped in the country's northwest and have been launching attacks against Western forces across the border in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani military has launched several operations along the Afghan border, including one last week to secure the main supply route for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. But many in the West have questioned Islamabad's willingness to target the Taliban because Pakistan backed the hard-line regime before its ouster.
Pakistan's recent decision to redeploy troops away from the Afghan border toward India after tension over the deadly Mumbai attacks has heightened concerns that the fight against militants could languish. India has blamed Pakistani militants for the November attacks in India's commercial capital that killed more than 160 people.
Pakistan first arrested Yasir in 2005 and sent him to Afghanistan, where he was released along with four other Taliban members in exchange for Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, an intelligence official said.
The Afghan and Italian governments were heavily criticized for the swap - a step that many observers feared would encourage more kidnappings.
Pakistani authorities arrested Yasir again Thursday during a raid on his relatives' house in the northwestern city of Peshawar near the Afghan border, said a second intelligence official.
Security personnel are now interrogating Yasir, who served as the Taliban leader's spokesman after the fall of the regime, the official added. Omar escaped during the U.S.-led invasion, and his current location is unknown.
The intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The Pakistani government also has faced a low-level insurgency in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, where militant tribesmen accuse the national government of ignoring the region's development needs while pocketing revenue from the region's natural gas reserves.
Police blamed tribesmen for two attacks yesterday that killed three people and wounded 10 others.