QUETTA, Pakistan - A detained Taliban spokesman has told his interrogators that the militia's fugitive chief, Mullah Hakim Latifi, who has often claimed responsibility on behalf of the Taliban for attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces, was arrested earlier this week in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. Latifi was not a prominent figure in the Taliban while it was in power in Afghanistan, only becoming a media contact after the ouster of the movement in a U.S.-led war in 2001. His exact ties to the Taliban leadership are not known. "So far, he has told interrogators that
Some Pakistani officials said Latifi was arrested Tuesday, but the intelligence official said he was detained Sunday at a home in Quetta's Newi Killi neighborhood. The announcement of Latifi's arrest had been delayed because he was being interrogated about other Taliban leaders, the official said. Four "low-level" aides of Latifi were arrested from several other homes in Newi Killi, the official said. Intelligence agents seized two satellite phones, two Pakistani cell phones, Taliban literature, audio cassettes and CDs containing films of Taliban operations, he said.
| Nice haul |