Thaindian News

By Arun Kumar
Washington, Feb 17 (IANS) A top Afghan Taliban military leader’s capture in Pakistan represents a turning point in the US-led war against the militants and is also potentially a strategic coup for Pakistan, US officials and analysts say.

The arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar represents the most significant Taliban capture since the terrorist attacks of Sep 11, 2001, CNN cited a senior Obama administration official as saying Tuesday. Baradar has been a close associate of Osama bin Laden’s and is seen as the No. 2 figure in the Afghan Taliban, behind Mullah Mohammed Omar.

“If anyone would know where the senior leaders are of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, then Baradar is someone who would be privy to that kind of information,” M.J. Gohel, executive director of the Asia-Pacific Foundation was quoted as saying. It’s “major success for the CIA” and “a major blow for the Taliban,” Gohel said.

In a report from Islamabad, the New York Times citing officials and analysts in Pakistan and in Afghanistan said Baradar’s arrest “may be a tactical victory for the United States, but it is also potentially a strategic coup for Pakistan.”

“Pakistan has eliminated a key Taliban commander, enhanced cooperation with the United States and ensured a place for itself when parties explore a negotiated end to the Afghan war,” it said.

Mullah Baradar had been a important contact for the Afghans for years, the influential US daily said citing Pakistani and Afghan officials. But Obama administration officials denied that they had made any contact with him.

“Whatever the case, with the arrest of Mullah Baradar, Pakistan has effectively isolated a crucial link to the Taliban leadership, making itself the main channel instead,” it said.

CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen called Baradar’s capture a “huge deal,” saying he is “arguably more important than Mullah Omar from a military point of view, because Mullah Omar really is more of a religious figure than an operational commander of the Taliban.”

Reva Bhalla, director of analysis at the Stratfor think tank, said the Pakistanis didn’t do this for free; they want concessions from the United States, and it’s a shift in the strategy on how it’s dealing with the Afghan Taliban in its own territory.

“It’s not like you have one guy, and that immediately opens the door to everyone else. It’s hard to believe that this will lead to this huge intelligence coup. But if the Pakistanis are shifting their mode of cooperation, that is significant,” she said.

Officials at State Department and White House spokesmen declined to go into details on record sticking to generic formulation about fighting terror.

State spokesman Gordon Duguid said: “We have had a close relationship with the Pakistani government and I suspect that we will continue to work with them in pursuance of a policy that blunts the ability of extremist groups to attack both of our societies,” he said.

At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs said: “We are no doubt prosecuting the war against Al Qaeda and its extremist allies in a way that hasn’t been seen before.”

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)