Key Afghan Taliban commander arrested in Pakistan

By Qasim Yousafzai, CentralAsiaOnline
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-02-16

[RIZWAN TABASSUM/AFP/Getty Images] A Pakistani man reads a newspaper reporting the capture of a top Taliban commander.

The Afghan Taliban's top military commander and governor of Herat province during the Taliban regime has been arrested in Karachi, news media reported February 16th.

"If confirmed, the arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Beradar will be a very big loss to the Taliban Tehreek," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, an expert on Afghan issues and a senior Pakistani journalist based in Peshawar. "(It is) a big loss like [the earlier killing of] Mullah Dadullah, a top Taliban leader."

"He was the No. 2 or 3 leader of the Taliban Tehreek after Mullah Muhammad Omar," said Yusufzai. "Mullah Omar and Beradar belonged to the same area, Urzgon province. Beradar is a longtime friend of Mullah ... Omar."

He was a founding member of the Taliban Tehreek in 1994 and was among the 22 members present when Mullah Omar announced the founding of the Taliban Tehreek in Kandahar, Yusufzai said.

Yusufzai said that Beradar is not a political figure but a military commander. He commanded the Taliban Army and served as governor of Herat.

Pakistan-based senior journalist and defence analyst M. Riaz told Central Asia Online, "He was very much an ... icon because he was the link between Mullah Omar and the Taliban Shura, the link between Omar and field commanders, and also a link between the Shura and field commanders."

The Taliban and Pakistani authorities are in rare agreement in denying the arrest took place.

However, media stories have cited un-named Pakistani military and government officials as confirming the arrest, which some accounts say took place seven to nine days ago.

And analysts and journalists in Pakistan say that the arrest of Beradar is all but certain to be fact.

"The news of the arrest of the top operational commander of the Taliban Tehreek, Mullah Beradar, carries much weight," Riaz said. "Sources in Pakistan have confirmed the news."

He said Afghan Taliban and other foreign fighters are known to be in Pakistan.

"Hiding in Karachi for the Afghan Taliban is much easier than in Peshawar and Quetta," he told Central Asia Online by telephone. "In Karachi, the Pukhtoons don't know each other well, because they have migrated from somewhere else. They don't know each other's roots the way they do in Peshawar and Quetta."

That lack of familiarity makes it easier for the Afghans to hide, he said.

Yusufzai said the arrest in Pakistan "certainly confirms that the Taliban leaders are hiding in Pakistan, not only in Quetta but in Karachi and elsewhere also. Before Beradar, a significant number of Taliban commanders were arrested in …Pakistan, such as Khairullah Khairkhwa and Lutfullah, in addition to Mullah Ubaidullah, whose arrest [authorities later denied had occurred]."

-- Central Asia Online writer Hasan Khan contributed to this report from Islamabad.

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