Militants won't be turned over to US
Source: Agencies |
February 20, 2010, Saturday
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PAKISTAN will not turn over the Afghan Taliban's No. 2 leader and two other high-value militants captured this month to the United States, but may deport them to Afghanistan, a senior minister said yesterday.
Interior Minister Rahman Malik said Pakistani 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 said 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 the southern city of Karachi. Pakistani forces also picked up Taliban "shadow governors" for two Afghan provinces.
A series of raids by Pakistani forces have followed, netting at least nine al-Qaida-linked militants who were sheltering in Pakistan. Missiles fired from a US unmanned drone aircraft on Thursday killed the brother of Afghan Taliban commander Siraj Haqqani, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
Taken together, the crackdown could be the most significant blow to the militants since US-led forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban regime for sheltering Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida network responsible for the September 11 attacks in the US.
Some of those caught in the recent operations are key figures in the Afghan insurgency, while others are members of militant groups that operate in Pakistan.
Taliban spokesmen have denied the arrests, accusing NATO of spreading propaganda to undermine the morale of Taliban fighters holding out against the biggest NATO military operation of the eight-year war. Thousands of US, British and Afghan troops are battling militants in the Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand province.
Interior Minister Rahman Malik said Pakistani 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 said 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 the southern city of Karachi. Pakistani forces also picked up Taliban "shadow governors" for two Afghan provinces.
A series of raids by Pakistani forces have followed, netting at least nine al-Qaida-linked militants who were sheltering in Pakistan. Missiles fired from a US unmanned drone aircraft on Thursday killed the brother of Afghan Taliban commander Siraj Haqqani, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
Taken together, the crackdown could be the most significant blow to the militants since US-led forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban regime for sheltering Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida network responsible for the September 11 attacks in the US.
Some of those caught in the recent operations are key figures in the Afghan insurgency, while others are members of militant groups that operate in Pakistan.
Taliban spokesmen have denied the arrests, accusing NATO of spreading propaganda to undermine the morale of Taliban fighters holding out against the biggest NATO military operation of the eight-year war. Thousands of US, British and Afghan troops are battling militants in the Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand province.
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