Islamabad, Sep 11 (DPA) A Taliban spokesman was arrested in the Swat Valley, where troops have spent five months fighting Islamist insurgents, Pakistan's military said Friday.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said Muslim Khan was captured with four colleagues, including key militant commander Mehmood Khan, during a security operation in the suburb of Mingora, the main town in Swat district.
Muslim Khan had a bounty of 10 million rupees ($122,000) on his head for involvement in terrorist activities. The same reward was offered by the government for information about Mehmood Khan.
'The arrested terrorist leaders are under the interrogation of law enforcement agencies,' Abbas said in a press statement.
'The security forces are conducting operations on the information obtained from the arrested terrorist leaders,' he added. 'Any further details to the media on the arrested leaders at this stage may jeopardize the operations of security forces, which are meeting remarkable success.'
The Taliban claimed that all five militants, who were members of the Taliban shura, or advisory council, were lured to peace talks in Islamabad and were then arrested by security officials.
The News newspaper cited a Taliban deputy spokesman, identified only as Salman, as saying the peace talks were mediated through a person named Kamal Khan, who is a resident of Swat but settled in the US, as well as a major in Military Intelligence identified only as Abdullah.
The newspaper reported that after guarantees from the military authorities, the five-member Taliban delegation went to Islamabad to hold talks with the Pakistan Army a week ago.