Kabul, Afghanistan – The self-proclaimed Taliban spokesman, known for changing his phone number weekly and making wild claims about purported Taliban attacks, has been arrested in Pakistan, officials said.
Mullah Hakim Latifi, who has served as a roving one-man Taliban press secretary for almost two years, was captured in Baluchistan province, just over the border from southern Afghanistan, Pakistan government spokesman Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters in Islamabad.
“It is a big success. We were looking for him for a long time,” Ahmed said, adding that the government had not decided whether to hand Latifi over to Afghanistan.
The high-profile arrest bolsters the belief of many Afghans that Taliban leaders are hiding out in the neighboring country. Afghan officials welcomed news of the arrest late Tuesday but said they have not been able to confirm it.
“We are grateful to hear of his arrest,” said Khaleeq Ahmed, a presidential spokesman. “He’s a terrorist who’s responsible for claiming the deaths of many innocent civilians, including teachers, doctors, clerics and many people working for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.”
He said Afghan officials hoped the arrest would lead to many others. Several former top Taliban leaders remain at large, and many speculate that they are hiding in the tribal areas of Pakistan, a major backer of the Taliban regime until the U.S.-led coalition drove it out of power in late 2001. Pakistani authorities have arrested many members of al-Qaeda since then, but top Taliban leaders have remained elusive.
Insurgents crossing the border from Pakistan have been a major sticking point in relations between the countries. Much of the violence linked to the Taliban is near border areas, in the south and southeast. On Tuesday, for example, a bomb exploded near a crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, killing three people and wounding 20.
