Pak will not hand over Taliban leaders to US

ISLAMABAD (Agencies) Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Friday Pakistan would not turn over the Afghan Talibans No 2 leader and two other high-value militants captured this month to the United States, but could deport them to Afghanistan.
Malik said authorities were still questioning Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the most senior Taliban figure arrested since the start of the Afghan war in 2001, and two other senior militants arrested with US assistance in separate operations this month. If it is determined that the militants have not committed any crimes in Pakistan, they will not remain in the country, he said.
First we will see whether they have violated any law, Malik told reporters in Islamabad. If they have done it, then the law will take its own course against them.
But at the most if they have not done anything, then they will go back to the country of origin, not to USA, Malik said.
Pakistani authorities working with the CIA arrested Baradar about two weeks ago in Karachi, Pakistani and US officials have said. At about the same time, Pakistani security forces picked up Taliban shadow governors for two Afghan provinces, Afghan officials said.
A series of raids by forces have followed, netting at least nine al-Qaeda-linked militants who were sheltering in Pakistan.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the US was pleased with the recent arrests.
What I will say to you, yet again, is that we are enormously heartened by the fact that the Pakistani government and their military intelligence services increasingly recognise the threat within their midst and are doing something about it, Morrell said.
Among those arrested were Ameer Muawiya, a bin Laden associate who was in charge of foreign al-Qaeda militants in Pakistans border areas, and Akhunzada Popalzai, also known as Mohammad Younis, a one-time Taliban shadow governor in Zabul province and former police chief in Kabul, according to Mullah Mamamood, a tribal leader in Ghazni province.
Others captured in Karachi included Hamza, a former Afghan army commander in Helmand province during Taliban rule, and Abu Riyad al Zarqawi, a liaison with Chechen and Tajik militants in Pakistans border area, Pakistani officials said.
The Taliban shadow governors - Mullah Abdul Salam of Kunduz province and Mullah Mohammad in Baghlan province - were instrumental in expanding Taliban influence in Afghanistans north, raising fears the insurgency was spreading beyond its base in the south.