A top Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was seized in Pakistan near Karachi on Feb. 8, accodring to U.S. media reports. The Taliban leader was captured in a joint operation by the Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the CIA during a secret raid.
Mullah Baradar is said to be in charge of the Taliban’s financial affairs and strategic military planning in southern Afghanistan, so the arrest can have an impact of the Taliban’s ability to resist the current NATO-led offensive in the Helmand Province.
A Taliban spokesman claimed that the Taliban leader was not captured, saying that Mullah Baradar is still fighting in Afghanistan. “They want to spread this rumor just to divert the attention of people from their defeats in Marjah and confuse the public,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refused to discuss any details about the capture. “This involves very sensitive intelligence matters, this involves the collection of intelligence, and it is best to do that, and not to necessarily talk about it,“ said Mr. Gibbs during a Feb. 16 press briefing.
According to Interpol, Mullah Baradar has the second highest position in Taliban, just behind its founder and spiritual leader Mullah Omar. He served as a deputy defense minister during the Taliban regime, which was overthrown by the U.S.-invasion in 2001.
Mullah Baradar also devised the Taliban strategy of “planting flowers,” a dark euphemism for burying improvised explosive devices on roadsides.
In an interview to Newsweek last year, Mullah Baradar said that Taliban welcomes an increase of foreign troops in Afghanistan, since they “want to inflict maximum losses on the Americans, which is possible only when the Americans are present here in large numbers and come out of their fortified places.”
After the capture, Mullah Baradar was interrogated while in Pakistani custody, but it was not confirmed whether he divulged any information.
Analysts posulate that the capture can be connected to a plan to make the Taliban agree to talks with the Western-backed Afghan government and coalition forces.
Mullah Baradar is said to be in charge of the Taliban’s financial affairs and strategic military planning in southern Afghanistan, so the arrest can have an impact of the Taliban’s ability to resist the current NATO-led offensive in the Helmand Province.
A Taliban spokesman claimed that the Taliban leader was not captured, saying that Mullah Baradar is still fighting in Afghanistan. “They want to spread this rumor just to divert the attention of people from their defeats in Marjah and confuse the public,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refused to discuss any details about the capture. “This involves very sensitive intelligence matters, this involves the collection of intelligence, and it is best to do that, and not to necessarily talk about it,“ said Mr. Gibbs during a Feb. 16 press briefing.
According to Interpol, Mullah Baradar has the second highest position in Taliban, just behind its founder and spiritual leader Mullah Omar. He served as a deputy defense minister during the Taliban regime, which was overthrown by the U.S.-invasion in 2001.
Mullah Baradar also devised the Taliban strategy of “planting flowers,” a dark euphemism for burying improvised explosive devices on roadsides.
In an interview to Newsweek last year, Mullah Baradar said that Taliban welcomes an increase of foreign troops in Afghanistan, since they “want to inflict maximum losses on the Americans, which is possible only when the Americans are present here in large numbers and come out of their fortified places.”
After the capture, Mullah Baradar was interrogated while in Pakistani custody, but it was not confirmed whether he divulged any information.
Analysts posulate that the capture can be connected to a plan to make the Taliban agree to talks with the Western-backed Afghan government and coalition forces.
