Mullah Omar’s son-in-law held from Karachi

* Former Afghan PM Motasim Agha Jan arrested from house in Ahsanabad area
* Afghan Taliban spokesman denies arrest

By Faraz Khan

KARACHI: Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar’s son-in-law – who was ranked seventh in terms of seniority in the Taliban Shura hierarchy – has been arrested in a raid conducted in Karachi.

Sources said that Motasim Agha Jan – Mullah Omar’s son-in-law – was arrested from a house in Ahsanabad area late on Wednesday night. They said while “some aides” accompanied Jan at all times, he was alone in the house at the time of the raid. Citing two intelligence officials, the AP news agency confirmed Jan’s arrest.

Meanwhile, Afghan Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi denied Jan had been arrested. The sources said Jan had held various important Taliban posts after the end of the Cold War. They said he held the office of prime minister during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. They said he was the seventh most senior leader of the Taliban Shura.

Jan’s capture marks the third major scalp for Pakistani security forces in a crackdown on the Taliban leadership. The latest success follows the arrests, also in Karachi, of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar – the Taliban military commander – and Mullah Omar’s former spokesman Syed Tayyab Agha. Three other “top-ranked al Qaeda members” were also arrested along with Baradar.

The arrests have been hailed by US officials and several analysts as a major blow to the Taliban in Afghanistan, although they caution that the group has rebounded from the death or detention of previous leaders. There had been speculation that Mohtasim was in the running to replace Baradar.

TTP commander arrested from Karachi

KARACHI: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Sindh police has claimed the arrest of a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan commander from the provincial capital. The TTP commander has been identified as Alam Mehsud. A CID team – led by Senior Superintendent of Police Fayyaz Khan – raided Alam’s hideout in Surjani Town and arrested him. The SSP said Alam was a close aide of slain TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud, and was the leader of the Taliban in Sararogha, South Waziristan. faraz khan