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On the heels of the capture of top Taliban commander Mulla Baradar, Pakistani intelligence has also nabbed two other prominent renegades who are being grilled to trace the whereabouts of elusive Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban supremo Mulla Omar.
Two more top Taliban commanders, Mulla Abdul Salam, former shadow governor of Kunduz and Mulla Mohammed, shadow governor of Baghlan province have been nabbed by Pakistani intelligence, US media reports said. The capture of these top commanders, US officials believe could lead to unravelling where the Taliban and Al Qaeda commanders are sheltering, media reports said.
Besides giving clues about the whereabouts and state of Al Qaeda and Taliban organisations, New York Times said Pakistani military and intelligence was pushing Washington to use Baradar to play a broker to negotiate a reconciliation with the Taliban.
The officials said that Baradar was apparently being sheltered by Pakistani intelligence agencies and had little control over the Taliban cadre waging a war against the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan. "Baradar and Salam could be used by Pakistani intelligence to point out moderates within the Taliban who could be weaned away for a negotiated peace process," the paper quoted US officials as saying.
Pakistan which wants a central role in future set-up in Afghanistan is pressing that the Baradar could be a direct player in eventual peace process across the border in Afghanistan, but the paper said whether the Americans shared this view is not known.
Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar had earlier been captured in 2001 by US allied Northern Alliance, but was released by the Americans on the request of Pakistan military and intelligence. Baradar comes from President Hamid Karzai's Popalzai Durrani Pashtun tribe and helped the one-eyed Taliban supremo Mulla Omar capture Kandahar in 1994.
US officials have not provided much details on the information conveyed by Baradar, but have suggested that he has an in-depth knowledge of Taliban's internal landscape. His capture has been hailed by the White House as a "big success" of joint operations in Pakistan. "It is a big success for our mutual efforts in the region," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Baradar is the most important Taliban figure to be captured since US-led invasion in Afghanistan in 2001, and US officials believe that his responsibilities spanned from strategy to finance to contacts with other militant groups. His capture, The Washington Post said followed months of behind the scene prodding by US officials. But the paper said it was too early to say whether Islamabad would extend similar co-operation in nabbing other top militants in the US hitlist.