Pakistan walks fine line with capture of high-level Taliban leader
The arrest on Pakistani soil shows the challenges facing Pervez Musharraf's government.
By David Montero | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the March 5, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 2
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - The unconfirmed arrest on Friday of the Taliban's former defense minister, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, could backfire for Islamabad, analysts here say, offering the most salient evidence to date of what Pakistan has long denied: that its soil is a sanctuary for Taliban leaders and their fighters.
The Pakistani government has yet to officially confirm the arrest, which was leaked to the media by anonymous government sources over the weekend. But, if true, it is the highest-level arrest of a Taliban commander on Pakistani soil since the Taliban's ouster in 2001.
The controversy sharpens rising concern, both here and abroad, that Pakistan could be playing a dangerous game of duplicity, appeasing Washington with high-profile arrests while refusing to sever fully its ties to old Taliban allies.
Sept. 11 was supposed to witness a dramatic U-turn in Pakistan's policy toward the Taliban, which it had supported for years as a tool for leverage in Afghanistan. Mr. Akhund's arrest on Pakistani soil is now reheating a debate as whether or not that ever happened.
"[Akhund] cannot be alone. I can only infer that a senior [commander] cannot venture alone in Quetta and sit quietly," says Ijaz Khattak, a professor of international relations at the University of Peshawar.
Such fears come as Vice President Dick Cheney met on Friday with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad, a visit many saw as part of a stepped-up pressure campaign on Pakistan.
Like many of the Taliban's highest leaders, more mysteries surround Akhund than discernable facts. Once the Taliban's defense minister, he is considered one of only two members of the Taliban's highest leadership council with direct contact to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's spiritual leader, himself in hiding since the regime's ouster in 2001. Akhund is believed to move freely between Afghanistan to Pakistan's tribal belt, and carries a $1 million bounty on his head.
Mystery also shrouds his arrest. Local media reports, citing anonymous security officials, say Akhund was seized along with other prominent operatives on a tip-off from American intelligence, and is now being interrogated jointly by Pakistani and US officials. The US Embassy in Islamabad says it has no comment on the matter, while the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, could not verify the information.
"We cannot substantiate that he's been arrested. I've heard reports both ways," says Lt. Col. Angela Billings, an ISAF spokesperson in Kabul.
If true, Akhund's arrest would earn Pakistan significant points by striking what could be a major blow, symbolic or otherwise, to the Taliban only weeks before their expected spring offensive.
"The man is one of the top strategists. They are the people who are running the show," says Behroz Khan, a prominent journalist in Peshawar and expert on the Taliban.
RSS feed
