2010-03-17 13:30:00

Despite the Lahore High Court order preventing his extradition, Pakistan Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has said Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s second-in command, would be handed over to Afghanistan after a case is registered against him in Pakistan.

Talking to media persons here, Mukhtar said Barader’s extradition would not hamper the reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

“Baradar is offender as he had entered into the country without passport, and we have to to register a case against him first,” The Nation quoted Mukhtar, as saying.

Replying to a question regarding India’s alleged involvement in the wide spread violence in Pakistan, he said Islamabad would not issue any statement in this regard unless it has evidence.

Mukhtar said Pakistani forces have the ability to stop aggression from both the eastern and western borders, and added that some troops have been shifted from the eastern border to the more hostile western border along Afghanistan. (ANI)

16 March 2010

The Afghan government was holding secret talks with the Taliban’s No. 2 when he was captured in Pakistan, and the arrest infuriated President Hamid Karzai, according to one of Karzai’s advisers.

The detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar — second in the Taliban only to one-eyed Mullah Mohammed Omar — has raised new questions about whether the U.S. is willing to back peace discussions.

Karzai “was very angry” when he heard that the Pakistanis had picked up Baradar with an assist from U.S. intelligence, the adviser said. Besides the ongoing talks, he said Baradar had “given a green light” to participating in a three-day peace jirga that Karzai is hosting next month.

Officials have disclosed little about how Baradar was nabbed last month in the port city of Karachi. The Pakistanis were said to be upset that the Americans were the source of news reports about his arrest.

Karzai won’t discuss his administration’s talks with Taliban members or their representatives, but several Afghan officials confirmed that his government was in discussions with Baradar, who hails from Karzai’s Popalzai tribe of the Durrani Pashtuns in Kandahar.

What actually precipitated Baradar’s arrest remains a mystery.

Some analysts claim Pakistan wanted to interrupt Karzai’s reconciliation efforts or force Karzai to give Islamabad a seat at a future negotiating table.

Another theory is that Baradar, deemed more pragmatic than other top Taliban leaders, was detained to split him from fellow insurgents. McChrystal said recently that it was plausible that Baradar’s arrest followed an internal feud and purge among Taliban leaders.

There’s also speculation that Baradar’s arrest was just lucky — even unintentional.