Taliban chief Mullah Omar detained in Pakistan: Afghan television
Taliban chief Mullah Omar detained in Pakistan: Afghan television
KABUL, July 6 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan popular television channel Tolo citing Pakistani media reported Tuesday that Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar has been arrested in Pakistan.
Tolo also showed a picture of the one-eyed Mullah Omar without giving more details.
Meantime, a Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi in talks with Xinhua via telephone from undisclosed location rejected the report as mere western propaganda, saying Taliban chief is free, and enjoys sound health and in full command of his fighters.
Previously, Taliban second-in-command Mullah Brather was arrested in Karachi city of Pakistan months ago.
Taliban militants have vowed to intensify activities against Afghan and NATO-led troops based in Afghanistan
This is an interesting development if proven to be true.
Sure would be. But I highly doubt that it will cause the Afghan resistance to fold up its tents. After all, it seems evident that the Afghan resistance is a pretty amorphous animal.
Quick, somebody get the US shadow feds on the horn and tell 'em the ISI need an a-okay to airlift another 800 Taliban 'n Al-CIA'da leaders to safety at Tora Bora. Bahahaha!
Cueball
I do not believe that the Afghan resistance would collapse however if this story is true the short to med term effects of Mullah Omar's capture will likely have a positive effect for ISAF and the Afghan government.
Does anyone believe the US Military would want to talk to mullah Omar for any particular reason? Observe how US hawks resisted the Taliban's offers to handover bin Laden three times. Nope they were having none of that. It's been a wildly successful phony war as far as warfiteering con men are concerned. It's been all gravy for them.
Cueball
I do not believe that the Afghan resistance would collapse however if this story is true the short to med term effects of Mullah Omar's capture will likely have a positive effect for ISAF and the Afghan government.
At best, the "positive effect" would be psychological.
It was some months ago when Pakistani authorities captured Mullah Brather. He has been sitting in a Pakistani jail(?) and we haven't heard about him since.
There are two reasons for these and other similar high profile captures:
1. Pakistani authorities want to send the signal to the U.S. that they are taking the "War on Terror" seriously, to get Uncle Sam and Hillary Clinton off their back.
2. By making negotiations with high ranking Afghan insurgent and Taliban leaders difficult for Hamid Karzai, Pakistan's military and ISI are telling Karzai that they have a stake in Afghanistan's political future and they don't want their influence diminished in this regard.
How's the hunt for Osama Bin Laden going?
Cueball
It would interesting to see where he was captured, if Omar was captured in Quetta this would mean the Pakistani government was gaining some control over areas normal control by the Pakistani Taliban.
If they did capture Omar, I would speculate they likely captured a number of senior Taliban officials as well.
I'll believe it when they show a video of him...
I also agree that if he was in fact captured the information, people, computers and what not captured with him would maybe have more of an effect then him being taken out in the long run.
Pakistani Official: "No we didn't capture Mullah Omar"
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/05/11/pakistani_official_no...
"Despite what you might have read the Pakistani government did not arrest Tabliban leader Mullah Omar a senior Pakistani offical confirms to the Cable.."
probably not.
Phew And thank goodness for that! Now they can carry on drug dealing, aiding and abetting the Taliban, and warfiteering as usual. It's been a very lucrative phony war.