A top Afghan Taliban leader has been captured in Pakistan in what would be the fourth detention in recent weeks of senior members of the insurgent group, US media reported yesterday.
Mullah Abdul Kabir, a member of the militia’s ruling council, was picked up several days ago in Nowshera district in Pakistan’s northwest, according to reports in the New York Times and Washington Post that cited unnamed Pakistani security officials.
Pakistani officials declined to confirm the reports.
If confirmed, the arrest would be a further sign that Pakistan is turning away from its old strategy of allowing Afghan Taliban leaders safe haven in the country — something that could have far-reaching implications for the US-led war in Afghanistan.
Last week, Pakistani and US officials said the No. 2 Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had been caught some 10 days earlier in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.
Two other Taliban leaders — Mullah Abdul Salam of Kunduz Province and Mullah Mohammad in Baghlan Province — were arrested separately in Pakistan about 10 to 12 days ago, Kunduz governor, Mohammad Omar, said.
The reports gave few details of Kabir’s arrest, except that it happened recently.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said yesterday he was stepping down to focus on his private business interests.
Tarin’s resignation is not expected to destabilize the government but international donors will be keen to see a respected minister appointed in his place.
“Tarin knows and understands the market well and there’s a bit of uncertainty about who will replace him,” said Sajid Bhanji, a dealer at brokers Arif Habib Ltd.
There has been speculation for weeks that Tarin, who negotiated an IMF loan in 2008, would resign.
“It is our duty, we should not mix up our official duties and personal business,” Tarin told Dunya Television.
Earlier, government officials said Tarin was stepping down to focus on his private banking interests.
In March 2008, a consortium comprising the International Finance Corporation, Bank Muscat, Nomura and Sinthos Capital, led by Tarin and another Pakistani banker, Sadeq Saeed, bought an 86.55 percent stake in Silk Bank for about US$213 million.
“He will be leaving soon, maybe as early as this week,” said a government official, who declined to be identified.
“He said he needs to focus on his business and that he can’t do both things at the same time,” he said.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
RSS