Pakistan captures top Taliban aide

The Pakistani Taliban’s top spokesman has been captured in an operation near the Afghan border.

The seizure of Mauvi Umar is another blow to the group following the reported killing of their leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US missile strike earlier this month.

Umar was seized in a village in the Mohmand tribal region last night in a car with two associates on their way to South Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold.

Local tribal elders assisted troops in locating Umar in the village of Khawazeo.

As the official spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the umbrella organisation for various regional and tribal militant movements, Umar frequently called journalists to claim responsibility for terrorist attacks in Pakistan. He was known to be close to Mehsud.

Umar’s capture was the second high-profile arrest of a senior Taliban figure in 24 hours.

Yesterday police said they had arrested a militant commander and close Mehsud aide who was being treated in a private hospital in Islamabad, the capital.

Militant commander Qari Saifullah, who is reportedly linked to al Qaida, told police he had been wounded in an American missile strike in South Waziristan

Pakistan’s Western allies are desperate to see a crackdown on militants threatening the stability of the nuclear-armed country as well as the success of the mission in neighbouring Afghanistan, where violence is surging ahead of elections later this week.