Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Baradar 'seized in Pakistan'

[DarkStar]

Taliban commander Mullah Baradar 'seized in Pakistan'


A man described as the top Afghan Taliban military commander and named as Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has been captured in Pakistan, US officials say. He was seized in a morning raid on a madrassa near Karachi by Pakistan's ISI intelligence service on 8 February, a security source told the BBC.

The government has yet to confirm the arrest; the Taliban have denied it.

The capture comes amid a major Nato-led offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

While the raid on Madarassa Khuddamul Quran - near the Nooriabad Industrial Estate some 45km (28 miles) from Karachi - was led by the ISI, it is not clear at the moment whether US officials were involved.

Correspondents say Mullah Baradar is reported to be in charge of all long-term strategic military planning for the Taliban in southern Afghanistan and, if confirmed, his arrest will have a very big effect on the Taliban's ability to conduct the insurgency there.

Senior US officials said Mullah Baradar was "providing intelligence".
"This operation was an enormous success," one official told ABC News.

"It is a very big deal," the official said.

The New York Times, citing US government sources, said the prisoner was the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the US-led war in Afghanistan began in 2001.

But a Taliban spokesman denied the reports, saying Mullah Baradar was still in Afghanistan actively organising the group's military and political activities.

"He has not been captured. They want to spread this rumour just to divert the attention of people from their defeats in Marjah and confuse the public," Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters news agency, referring to the US-led Nato offensive in the Marjah area of Helmand province.

Guerrilla tactics

Little is known about Mullah Baradar, but in terms of influence he is said to rank second only to the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullar Muhammad Omar, who has been hiding from Western agencies since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001.

Senior intelligence officials voiced hope he would provide the location of Mullah Omar.

The BBC's North America editor Mark Mardell, in Washington, says Mullah Baradar is a "big fish" who runs the Taliban's day-to-day operations, both military and financial.

He allocates Taliban funds, appoints military commanders and designs military tactics, our correspondent says.

Mullah Baradar was quoted last year as telling his troops not to confront US soldiers with their superior firepower, but to adopt guerrilla tactics.

He is said to be responsible for the Taliban tactic of planting "flowers" - improvised explosive devices (IEDs) - along roadsides.

The New York Times, citing officials, said the Karachi raid was conducted by Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and CIA operatives.

The newspaper said it had learned of the operation on Thursday, but delayed reporting it after a request by White House officials. They said disclosing it would end a very successful intelligence drive.

US officials later acknowledged the news, saying it was becoming broadly known in the region.

According to Interpol, Mullah Baradar was born in 1968 and served as deputy minister of defence for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan before it was toppled in 2001.

He has been subject to UN sanctions including a travel ban, an arms embargo and the freezing of assets.

Mullah Baradar was reported to have engaged in an e-mail exchange with Newsweek magazine in July 2009, in which he vowed to "inflict maximum losses" on US forces in Afghanistan.

"In every nook and corner of the country, a spirit for jihad is raging," the magazine quoted him as saying.


BBC News - Taliban commander Mullah Baradar 'seized in Pakistan'

[Solid Beast]

Tuesday 16th February, 2010

Taliban deny reports about top military commander Mullah Baradar's arrest

Kabul, Feb 16: The Afghan Taliban has denied reports that US and Pakistani forces have captured its top military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

A Taliban spokesman said that Baradar was still in Afghanistan actively organizing the group's military and political activities.

"The rumours reported today on the arrest of Mullah Baradar are all untrue. It is a big lie," News.com.au quoted Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, as telling a foreign news agency.

"He is currently in Afghanistan, where he is leading all jihad activities... He is here with us and is in contact with us," he added.

Baradar has been billed as second only to Taliban founder Mohammad Omar and officials have said that his capture would be a major blow to the militia, which is fighting to bring down the Western-backed government in Afghanistan.

Ahmadi further charged that the speculations intended to deflect attention from a major US-led assault on a cluster of villages in Marjah in southern Afghanistan, where U.S. Marines have reportedly run into pockets of resistance.

"The sole goal of such baseless reporting and propaganda is to make up for the failure in Marjah. There is serious resistance ongoing in Marjah," he said.

Earlier, US Government officials had said that Baradar was apprehended through a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, and has been in Pakistani custody for several days.

It was believed that Baradar was being interrogated, and his capture has provided a window into the Taliban that could lead to the capture of other senior insurgents.

They said they are particularly hopeful about Baradar revealing the whereabouts of Mullah Omar, the one-eyed cleric who is the group's spiritual leader.

Taliban deny reports about top military commander Mullah Baradar's arrest

[Solid Beast]

Mullah Baradar arrest reports propaganda: Rehman Malik

Tuesday, 16 Feb, 2010



ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Tuesday branded as “propaganda” reports that the top Taliban military commander had been arrested in a joint Pakistani-US spy operation.

Speaking to reporters outside parliament in Islamabad, the cabinet minister stopped short of either confirming or denying the media reports.

The New York Times and other US media cited US government officials as saying that US and Pakistani intelligence services arrested Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Karachi “several days ago”.

“We are verifying all those we have arrested. If there is any big target, I will show the nation,” Malik said.

“If the New York Times gives information, it is not a divine truth, it can be wrong. We have joint intelligence sharing and no joint investigation, nor joint raids,” Malik added.

“We are a sovereign state and hence will not allow anybody to come and do any operation. And we will not allow that. So this (report) is propaganda,” he added.

Pakistan's government is a close US ally in the war on Al-Qaeda and the eight-year conflict against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, but the relationship is controversial in an increasingly anti-American country.

DAWN

[DarkStar]

It seems that our interior minister himself was unaware of the operation...Shows how far away from the day to day counter terrorism effort the govrenment really is.

[Solid Beast]

Interior Minister's job is to sow disinformation. Rehman Malik not only fits the perfect profile for such a role but this government should not be trusted in times of peril by people in Pakistan. There needs to be a referendum held at the public level to ascertain this government's competence and just wtf the military has been doing funding and arming taliban in madrassas with public money. There are provisions for such in Pakistani law according to the Constitution, if it is to be derived from British law in the least then there should. Impeach these **** and ****** and ******** and bring in the military and intel services in control for **** sakes.

[wtf]

Originally Posted by DarkStar

It seems that our interior minister himself was unaware of the operation...Shows how far away from the day to day counter terrorism effort the govrenment really is.

New York times is reporting that he was caught at a checkpoint between Afghanistan/South Waziristan and Karachi. He was apparently traveling without his entourage of guards.

Wouldn't be surprised if the interior minister did not know, though there was also some advance intelligence input that he would be traveling on the route.

[Neo]

Great work ISI!

[vinod2070]

So the good Taliban is also a target! ;)

Good riddance BTW. Let's hope this trend continues and Afghnaistan can return to peace.

[vinod2070]

WASHINGTON: India may be wasting its time and energy engaging Pakistan’s civilian set-up in the upcoming talks on February 25, going by the way Washington is primarily dealing with the country’s military and intelligence leadership in Rawalpindi and leaving Islamabad’s democratically-elected government in the lurch over sensitive parleys on terrorism.

US recognition of Pakistan’s military as the real power behind the civilian façade has been evident for some time, with American interlocutors, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, spending more time with the army brass in Rawalpindi than with the civilian leadership in Islamabad. But it has become glaringly evident this past week when Islamabad was left largely clueless about a CIA-ISI move to engage the Taliban in a move dressed up as the ''capture'' of Taliban No.2, Mullah Birather, in a joint operation.

While Washington was agog with the story of Birather’s ''capture'' and its consequences for Taliban and the US war in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s civilian leadership was caught flatfooted by the developments. The country’s interior minister Rehman Malik revealed the government’s ignorance when he insisted there had been no such operation, even as analysts in Washington were taking stock of the development.

''If the New York Times gives information, it is not a divine truth, it can be wrong. We have joint intelligence sharing and no joint investigation, nor joint raids,'' Malik told reporters about the story first reported by the US paper. ''We are a sovereign state and hence will not allow anybody to come and do any operation. And we will not allow that. So this (report) is propaganda,'' he added.

But US officials, while declining to go into details of the alleged ''capture'' citing ''sensitive intelligence matters,'' appeared pleased with the breakthrough they hope will lead to a convenient exit from Afghanistan. Birather’s ''capture'' was credited by some to Pakistan’s army chief Pervez Ashraf Kiyani’s desire to ensure a key role of his country in the any attempt to mediate with the Taliban.

While details of how and why Birather was ''captured'' in Karachi are still murky, regional experts are already suggesting that the story is just a cover for Pakistan facilitating US contacts with the Taliban or interposing itself in US-Taliban engagement. Pakistani intelligence agencies have known his whereabouts for a long time, according to Taliban expert Ahmed Rashid.

Others are suggesting that the military-ISI combine has ''sacrificed'' Birather to the Americans to win Washington’s trust and secure for itself a role in Afghanistan. ''I think their realization of what was happening within their own country and the threat that it posed also played a big part in changing their actions,'' White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said cryptically, indicating the Pakistanis had brought in Birather to reflect a change in policy.

Still others believe US agencies had cornered Birather in Karachi and the joint operation story is just a cover-up to save Pakistan from embarrassment, while some are of the view that the US and/or Pakistan have engaged Birather for a long time and the capture story was drummed up after news of the secret parlays leaked.

No matter which explanation is correct, it shows Pakistan's civilian dispensation in poor light. In fact, locked in a confrontation with the country’s judiciary, the civilian quartet of President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani, foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and interior minister Malik – dubbed ''4 Idiots'' in Indian circles – have ceded foreign policy to the country’s pugnacious military. This raises the question as to how seriously India should take the upcoming foreign secretary level talks on February 25, an engagement that is credited to Washington’s persuasive hand.

While the Islamabad quartet has largely acted as stooges for Rawalpindi brass, which cracks the whip whenever the four step out of line, US recognition of the military’s primacy appears to have undermined not just Pakistan’s civilian government, but also this engagement with New Delhi. During her last visit to the country, Hillary Clinton spent three hours with General Kayani, for more than any of her engagements with the civilian leadership. The attention did not go unnoticed. Other US interlocutors have also invariably called on Kiyani.

Meanwhile, Birather’s presence in Karachi has also focused attention on the gradual dispersal of extremist elements from the region’s badlands, now under the scrutiny of drones and other US ''eyes in the sky,'' to Pakistan’s urban centers, home to the India-centric jihadi crowd. Last week, the much-wanted extremist Hakimullah Mehsud was reported to have died in Multan in Southern Punjab, where he was reportedly brought for treatment for injuries suffered in a drone attack. ISI elements, possibly renegades, are thought to facilitate such movements into urban centers as US pressure on the border regions make it unsafe for terrorists. Pakistan’s civilian government appears to have little control over all this and Washington keeping Islamabad in the dark over its dealing with the Army-ISI isn’t helping.


Fawning over Pak military, US undermines New Delhi talks - US - World - The Times of India

[ferrari]

I think Mullah Baradar's arrest is just a window dressing. He will be used as a front for talks with Good Taliban.