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| Top Taliban leader captured in Pakistan | | | ISLAMABAD, MAR 2
Former Taliban Defence Minister and the number two leader of the outfit Mullah Obaidullah Akhund has been arrested by Pakistani forces from Quetta in the southwest Balochistan province.
Akhund was reportedly captured along with Amir Khan Haqqani, a Taliban commander in Zabul and Abdul Bari, the former Governor of Helmand province, local daily 'Dawn' reported today.
He was on America's most wanted list and was a member of the 10-man Taliban Leadership Council announced in June 2003.
NATO and US officials view Akhund as one of the closest lieutenants of outfit's chief Mullah Omar, the other two being Mullah Akhtar Osmani and Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor.
A former Taliban Defence Minister, Akhund, is the senior-most Taliban figure to have been captured since the ouster of the militia from power in Afghanistan in November 2001.
He hails from Punjwai district of Kandahar province and was widely considered as the military chief of Taliban forces.
Former Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi, who was captured by Pakistani security forces in Quetta in 2005, had said last year that that Mullah Omar had told him to initiate an attack that would send a clear signal to the world that the Taliban were a force to be reckoned with.
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