Pakistani intelligence officials: Nearly 15 top-level Taliban in custody in Pakistan

Pakistani officials: Nearly 15 top Taliban held

KABUL — Nearly 15 senior and midlevel Taliban figures have been detained in Pakistan in recent weeks, including the group’s top commander in eastern Afghanistan whose arrest was confirmed Thursday by the Afghan government.

Some of the Taliban were picked up after they fled Afghanistan ahead of a major military assault under way in southern Afghanistan, two Pakistani intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Thousands of U.S., NATO and Afghan troops are in the 13th day of an offensive to seize Taliban-controlled areas around the town of Marjah in Helmand province.

The two intelligence officials said the senior and midlevel Afghan Taliban members were arrested in Pakistan after the detention of the Taliban’s No. 2 leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Some of the arrests occurred in shootouts with Pakistani forces, they said.

The officials said Pakistan had shared its investigations with the CIA, which provided key information to Pakistan’s intelligence service about the hide-outs of Taliban leaders. They said the CIA provided intelligence that led to Baradar’s arrest, but did not take part in the raids by Pakistani intelligence forces that resulted in his capture.

Information gleaned from Baradar led to the arrests of two Taliban shadow governors — Mullah Abdul Salam of Kunduz province and Mullah Mohammad of Baghlan — and the arrest of Akhunzada Popalzai, also known as Mohammad Younis, a one-time Taliban shadow governor in Zabul province and former police chief in Kabul, the officials said.

One of the Pakistani intelligence officials said Pakistan was dismayed over the leak of information about the arrests, especially Baradar’s. He was still providing “actionable” information about the Taliban hide-outs across the country when the media reported his capture, the official said.

On Thursday, Afghan spokesman Siamak Herawi said Pakistani authorities had told the Kabul government that the top Taliban commander for eastern Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Kabir, was taken into custody in Pakistan about a week ago.

Kabir’s arrest had been rumored for days, but Herawi’s comment was the first on the record by an official of either country.

Gen. Abdul Karim Omeryar, police chief in Laghman province, said Kabir directed Taliban operations in Laghman, Kunar, Nuristan and Nangarhar provinces.

“Until they appoint another person, his arrest will positively affect the security situation in the four provinces,” Omeryar said. “All the Taliban who came from Pakistan to fight here were coordinated by Kabir. He was very important within the Taliban ring.”

Among others being held Ameer Muawiya, an Osama bin Laden associate in charge of foreign al-Qaida militants in Pakistan’s border areas; Hamza, a former Afghan army commander in Helmand province during Taliban rule; and Abu Riyad al Zarqawi, a liaison with Chechen and Tajik militants in Pakistan’s border area, Pakistani officials said.

Ahmad reported from Islamabad.