Army confirms Baradar's arrest

ISLAMABAD Pakistan on Wednesday confirmed that key Afghan Taliban Commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was in its custody and providing useful intelligence that was being shared with the United States.
At the conclusion of detailed identification process, it has been confirmed that one of the persons arrested happens to be Mullah Baradar, an ISPR spokesman said, adding place of arrest and operational details could not be released due to security reasons.
However, credible diplomatic sources informed TheNation that Mullah Baradar, second in command after Taliban supreme leader Mullah Muhammad Omer, was arrested ten days ago from the outskirts of Karachi and taken to an unknown location for investigation.
Pakistani defence analysts described the arrest of Mullah Baradar a major success by countrys security forces that might help force the Afghan Taliban to reconcile with the Afghan government instead of sneaking into Pakistan for shelter.
Mullah Baradar was born in 1968 in village Weetmak of Oruzgan province of Afghanistan and had actively fought against the Russian forces along with other Afghan Mujahideen. He met Mullah Omar during that period. After the withdrawal of Soviet forces and collapse of Dr Najibullahs regime in 1992, two of them settled down in the southern Afghan district of Maiwand.
But two years later, Mullah Omar started a revolt in 1994 against local warlords and Mullah Baradar joined him as one of the leading commanders who started Taliban movement in 1996 that culminated in the establishment of Taliban government.
Mullah Baradar was appointed as central commander for western Afghanistan and later garrisons commander of capital city Kabul where he started battles with rival non-Pashtun commanders in the north. Mullah Baradar and Mullah Omar were together when US forces bombarded Kandahar in November 2001.
Agencies add: Confirmation of Baradars detention came just hours before US President Barack Obama was to meet his war cabinet to discuss Afghanistan and a major offensive on a key Taliban bastion that has run into stiff resistance.
The White House on Tuesday refused to confirm Baradars arrest, but said it welcomed better cooperation between the United States and Pakistan.
Weve seen an increase in Pakistani pushback on extremists in their own country, which I think is beneficial not simply for us, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.
But the Taliban have denied Baradars capture and accused US officials of trying to deflect attention from a major offensive in southern Afghanistan, where 15,000 US, NATO and Afghan troops are trying to capture a Taliban stronghold.