Pakistan: Al-Qaida-linked militants arrested

By MUNIR AMHAD
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 18, 2010

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistani authorities using U.S.-gathered intelligence arrested up to nine al-Qaida-linked militants in a series of overnight raids in the southern city of Karachi, officials said Thursday.

The arrests follow the recent detentions in Pakistan of several Afghan-linked militant leaders, including the capture of the Taliban's No. 2 chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, indicating that Pakistan may be stepping up its cooperation with the U.S. against extremism.

Two Pakistani security officials said the raids in Karachi on Wednesday night were not directly related to Baradar's arrest.

They said eight or nine militant suspects were arrested. One was identified as Ameer Muawiya, who the officials said was in charge of foreign al-Qaida militants operating in Pakistan's tribal regions near Afghanistan and was an associate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Others were named as Akhunzada Popalzai and Hazmi. Their nationalities were not immediately known.

(More here. And from the NYT:)

In Blow to Taliban, 2 More Senior Leaders Are Arrested

By DEXTER FILKINS

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two senior Taliban leaders have been arrested in recent days inside Pakistan, officials said Thursday, as American and Pakistani intelligence agents continued to press their offensive against the group’s leadership after the capture of the insurgency’s military commander last month.

Afghan officials said the Taliban’s “shadow governors” for two provinces in northern Afghanistan had been detained in Pakistan by officials there. Mullah Abdul Salam, the Taliban’s leader in Kunduz, was detained in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad, and Mullah Mir Mohammed of Baghlan Province was also captured in an undisclosed Pakistani city, they said.

The arrests come on the heels of the capture of Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s military commander and the deputy to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the movement’s founder. Mr. Baradar was arrested in a joint operation by the C.I.A. and the ISI, Pakistan’s military intelligence agency.

(Continued here.)

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