PAKISTAN: Pakistani armed forces and security agencies arrest Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi

Record ID: 859268

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Pakistani armed forces and security agencies arrest Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi
  • Date: 10th October 2005
  • Summary: SECURITY OUTSIDE AHMED'S HOUSE CLOSE UP OF PISTOL
  • Embargoed: 25th October 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • City:
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAP6NVMKF0E4Z72BCSN3E4KBO
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: The main spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents Abdul Latif Hakimi, was arrested in Pakistan on Tuesday (October 4), according to Pakistan's Information Minister.
    "Yes, we confirm that we have arrested Abdul Latif Hakimi from Baluchistan," said Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed
    "Our armed forces and security agencies arrested him today and it's a big catch. We were looking (for) him from a long time," he added.
    Ahmed said security agencies were interrogating Hakimi, and were expecting to get important information from him.
    "His arrest will give good information and good clues," Ahmed said, adding: " We believe that his arrest will give certain important information because he was dealing with the media, and he was their (Taliban) spokesman and he had close links with the Taliban leaders. It's a big success of our security agencies and the armed forces."
    Hakimi has been the main spokesman for the Taliban regime which was ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001.
    He was frequently in touch with reporters, speaking by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location, although Afghan and U.S. officials have long suspected he was in Pakistan.
    In June, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, publicly questioned Pakistan's inability to find him and other Taliban figures.
    Hakimi often made outlandish claims on behalf of Taliban fighters, saying they had inflicted huge casualties on U.S. and Afghan government troops.
    But his information was also, at times, very accurate. Asked if Hakimi would be handed over to the United States, as have other Taliban and al Qaeda militants arrested in Pakistan, Ahmed said he would be first interrogated by Pakistani agencies and "then we will see."
    An official in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office welcomed the news, and hoped that his arrest would lead to more arrests. He could not say whether Afghanistan would request that he be handed over to Afghan custody. A U.S. military spokesman in the Afghan capital, Kabul, said he had no immediate comment.
    Hakimi last called Reuters on Monday (October 3) at around 4 p.m. (1100 GMT) to deny an Afghan government report that 31 Taliban insurgents had been killed in fighting with government troops.
    "They're lying," Hakimi said. "We were the attackers and we killed 11 Afghan soldiers. Only three Taliban were injured."
    The Afghan Defence Ministry said eight government troops had been wounded.
    Hakimi frequently vowed unending jihad, or holy war, against U.S. and government forces and angrily rejected suggestions of reconciliation.
    Late last year, responding to a U.S. call for the Taliban to lay down their arms, he said peace would not resolve Afghanistan's problems
    "They are the criminals for destroying our homeland," he said of the United States.
    Hakimi's telephone was switched off on Tuesday.
    His arrest comes less than a month after a previous Taliban spokesman, former ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, was freed from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba under an Afghan government reconciliation programme.
    ec/jd
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