Afghan PM vows to arrest fugitive Taliban leader

Afghanistan’s interim Prime Minister, Hamid Karzai, has vowed to arrest Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who has reportedly escaped from the Baghran district despite being surrounded by anti-Taliban forces.

Local tribal commanders in the area had said they were negotiating terms for Omar’s surrender, but he apparently fled the area on a motorbike with a handful of loyal colleagues yesterday.

Karzai, who succeeded Omar as leader of Afghanistan, said his predecessor will eventually be apprehended.

“We are looking for him and we will arrest him,” he said.

Despite this promise, capturing the one-eyed cleric will not be easy in a country as lawless as Afghanistan.

The fugitive Taliban leader was born in the Pashtun area of southern Afghanistan and has long had support in areas surrounding Baghran.

He is also a mujahideen veteran who fought the occupying Russian Army from 1979 to 1989, when Afghan resistance fighters learned how to remain in the mountains undetected and never to stay in one place for long.

Pro-Taliban tribal leaders in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, a predominantly Pashtun area, would also be likely to provide refuge for Omar.