Five key Taliban members arrested by Pakistan
Pakistan Times Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Key operator in Taliban’s era Abdul Kabeer along with his five associates was detained in NWFP on Monday.

Official sources say, Pakistan security forces arrested Abdul Kabeer in Peshawar and Molvi Abdul Qadeer from Attock during two separate operations.

Abdul Kabeer has remained a member of wanted Mulla Umer’s advisory council and ex-governor of three Afghan provinces.

While Abdul Qadeer was also said to be Governor of one of Afghan provinces.

Apart, three others have been arrested whose identities were being kept secret.

In-depth

Pakistan arrested five senior Taliban leaders Monday, including a deputy to fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, officials said to a foreign news agency.

The arrests were made after security men raided several homes in northwestern Pakistan.

Two of the captured men are reported to have been identified as Maulvi Abdul Qadeer, a deputy to Omar and formerly chairman of the Taliban Special Council, and Abdul Kabir, a former Governor in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.

Names of the remaining three are not known, but they are also reported to be important Taliban leaders, now being interrogated by authorities.

Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, has arrested more than 700 Taliban and al-Qaida members, including high level operatives, since the hard-line Taliban was ousted from power in Afghanistan in 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden.

Pakistan has deployed more than 70,000 troops to this region to flush out remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida.●