Sources: Captured Taliban leader 'singing like a male canary'
By: Sara A. Carter
National Security Correspondent
March 11, 2010
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — The Afghan Taliban's former second in command has been "singing like a male canary" since his capture last month, officials here told The Washington Examiner.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was arrested by Pakistani security agencies in Karachi, has become "a vital asset in gathering information on the Taliban and other extremist groups operating in the region," one Pakistani counterintelligence official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of his work. Baradar is of interest to both U.S. and Afghan authorities. It is believed that U.S. counterintelligence officials are also questioning Baradar, who has close ties to Mullah Omar and other leaders in the region.
Baradar's information that will aide both Pakistan and the United States in the war on terror, the Pakistani officials said.
"He obviously does not want to be released under any circumstances," one Pakistani official said. "He would not survive after the information he has given the government."
Baradar was born in Wetmak village in the southern Uruzgan province of Afghanistan into an ethnic Pashtun Popalzai clan in 1968. His arrest dealt a serious blow to the Afghan Taliban.
The Pakistani official said Islamabad "is expected to turn over Baradar to Afghan authorities after we have finished with him."
On Wednesday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Pakistan for a two-day visit, and on his agenda is a formal request for Pakistan to hand over Baradar to be tried in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials told The Examiner.
Karzai hopes the extradition of Baradar to Afghanistan will aid his sinking polls over the war against Taliban, according to news reports in the region.
At a meeting last month, Afghan and Pakistani interior ministers discussed the possibility of a trial in Afghanistan.
They said the Afghan government had also expressed the desire to conduct Baradar's trail in their country during the meeting of the interior ministers of the two countries, in Islamabad.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Islamabad would "consider" any formal request by Afghanistan, according to reports from the region. However, the Pakistani courts have banned handing Baradar over to any foreign country.
Pakistani officials told The Examiner, however, that a deal could still be struck.
