Pakistan Captures Top Taliban Aide

NEWYORKTIMES.COM
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan has captured the chief spokesman of the Pakistani Taliban, security officials said Tuesday, dealing another blow to the militant network two weeks after its top commander was apparently killed in an American airstrike.

The spokesman, Maulvi Said Muhammad, who also goes by the name Maulvi Omar, was captured by local Pakistani tribesmen in Mohmand Agency, a Taliban stronghold in western Pakistan, and turned over to Pakistani forces, security officials said.

The officials, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the arrest publicly, said Mr. Omar confirmed the death of the top commander, Baitullah Mehsud, during an interrogation.

It was impossible to verify their accounts.

One security official said Mr. Omar, who was captured along with two bodyguards, had indicated there were “problems” within the movement over leadership.

“Omar was unnerved in the beginning but later broke up and started singing,” the official said.

Security officials said Mr. Omar told them that he wanted to go to the Orakzai tribal region for consultations over a successor to Mr. Mehsud, but that he was forced to try to return to his native Bajaur tribal region because of fighting between two militant factions along the route.

He was captured by pro-government tribesmen, turned over to the paramilitary Frontier Corps and then airlifted to Peshawar, the main city in western Pakistan.

Televised images showed a prisoner believed to be Mr. Omar being bundled into a helicopter. One senior military official said Mr. Omar had apparently been beaten by the tribesmen, though it was impossible to verify that account. “He is being treated for wounds,” the official said. “He seems grievously injured. We will subject him to interrogation when he recovers.”