PAKISTAN:Pakistani security forces have captured one of the Taliban's three top leaders, just hours after US vice president Dick Cheney's unannounced visit to Pakistan earlier this week, a senior security official and Taliban sources have said.
The capture of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund marked the first Pakistani arrest of a senior leader of the Islamist militia since it was driven from power in Afghanistan in 2001 and thousands of its fighters fled into Pakistan. Sources told Reuters that Akhund was arrested late on Monday in the southwestern city of Quetta. The arrest comes as the Bush administration faces a wave of scepticism over Pakistan's role as an ally in the war on terrorism.
Pakistani government and military spokesmen denied the arrest had been made or said they had no knowledge of it.
The New York Times, however, also carried a report on its website, in which Washington confirmed that Akhund was being held. Taliban sources, speaking on satellite telephones, said Akhund was caught at the home of a relative. - ( Reuters)
