In a major catch, a top militant considered second-in-command to elusive Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar was arrested in Karachi during a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence sleuths.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured in the Baldia Town area of Karachi last week and is now being interrogated by Pakistani and US officials, Dawn News channel quoted sources in Pakistan's Interior Ministry as saying.
Pakistani officials' remarks on the arrest of Baradar came after his capture was reported by The New York Times.
The arrest, made during a secret ISI-CIA operation, came after Pakistani authorities received a tip-off from US intelligence agencies that Baradar had been present in Karachi for the past few weeks.
The militant commander put up no resistance during his arrest, the sources were quoted as saying.
Mullah Baradar was a key deputy of the Taliban's supreme commander leader Mullah Muhammad Omar and a senior figure in the movement's 'shura' or leadership council.
However, the Taliban denied the reports of his arrest.
A Taliban spokesman said Mullah Baradar was still in Afghanistan and involved in organising the group's military and political activities.
Mullah Baradar is an Afghan described by US officials as the "most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago," The New York Times reported.
The paper said he ranked "second in influence only to" Mullah Omar, the Taliban's founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 terror attacks.
The Times reported that it was unclear whether Mullah Baradar was talking but US officials said his capture had "provided a window into the Taliban and could lead to other senior officials."
The officials also hoped he would provide the whereabouts of Mullah Omar, the one-eyed cleric who is the Taliban's spiritual leader.
Details of the raid that led to Mullah Baradar's capture were not immediately available but officials said it was carried out by the ISI and CIA.
The New York Times learned of the operation on Thursday but delayed reporting it at the request of White House officials, who contended that making it public would end a "hugely successful intelligence-gathering effort."
The officials said the Taliban's leaders had been unaware of Mullah Baradar's capture and if it became public, they might cover their tracks and become more careful about communicating with each other.
The Times published the news after White House officials acknowledged that the capture of Mullah Baradar was becoming widely known in the region.
US officials believe that besides running the Taliban's military operations, Mullah Baradar ran the group's leadership council, often called the 'Quetta Shura' because its leaders are thought to be hiding near Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province.
The daily reported that the participation of the ISI in the arrest could "suggest a new level of cooperation from Pakistan's leaders, who have been ambivalent about American efforts to crush the Taliban."
It said that senior Pakistani leaders, including army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, have gradually "come around to the view that they can no longer support the Taliban in Afghanistan as they have quietly done for years without endangering themselves."
Quoting unnamed officials, the daily said Pakistan was leading the interrogation of Baradar, but US officials were also involved.
The conditions of the questioning are unclear, it reported. "American intelligence officials believe that elements within Pakistan's security services have covertly supported the Taliban with money and logistical help largely out of a desire to retain some ally inside Afghanistan for the inevitable day when the Americans leave," it said.
"The ability of the Taliban's top leaders to operate relatively freely inside Pakistan has for years been a source of friction between the ISI and the CIA. Americans have complained that they have given ISI operatives the precise locations of Taliban leaders, but that the Pakistanis usually refuse to act," the report said.
According to an Interpol alert, it said, Baradar was born in 1968 in Weetmak village, in Afghanistan's Oruzgan Province.
"Terrorism experts describe him as a skilled military leader who runs many high-level meetings of the Taliban's top commanders in Afghanistan," it said. PTI
