Mystery phone call unwelcome by Taliban founder ABC Online
Afghan intelligence agents have spoken with fugitive Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar after commandeering a satellite phone being used by his top aide, an Afghan official has claimed.
Mullah Omar, along with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has escaped a US-led dragnet which now numbers some 20,000 coalition soldiers since the ousting of his Islamic fundamentalist regime in late 2001.
A man believed to be Mullah Omar's aide, Mullah Sakhi Dad Mujahid, was captured earlier while carrying a satellite telephone containing the phone numbers of top members of the ousted fundamentalist regime, Kandahar intelligence chief Abdullah Laghmanai told AFP.
"We contacted Mullah Omar by Mullah Mujahid's phone," he said, adding that at first Mujahid was forced to talk to his boss on the phone.
"But when he (Omar) realised the situation ... he cut off the phone."
"Salam-aleikum (Peace on you), where are you?" Mullah Omar asked Mujahid, according to Mr Laghmanai who did not say when the call was made.
Mullah Mujahid, as he is known locally, was arrested during a raid in Dara-i-Noor, some 70 kilometres north of southern Kandahar city.
The area is in the rugged border area between south-central Uruzgan and Kandahar provinces and known to US military officials as the "Taliban heartland".
Mujahid served as Mullah Omar's secretary under the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule, according to Laghmanai.
"Currently he was serving as Mullah Omar's military assistant," he said.
Kandahar military spokesman General Abdul Wasay confirmed the arrest of the senior Taliban official.
"The arrest of Mullah Mujahid will pacify Taliban's activities in the area," where he was captured, he told AFP, without elaborating on further details.
Mr Laghmanai said subsequent efforts to contact Mullah Omar on the phone had been unsuccessful as the one-eyed Taliban boss refuses to answer phone calls "from strange numbers".
"Maybe Omar has found out that his friend is under our control," he said. "He doesn't answer his telephone."
Mujahid was earlier transferred in handcuffs to Kabul for further investigations which authorities hope could lead to the arrest of other militants, including Mullah Omar.
"Once the investigation is done, we hope to capture Mullah Omar, if not, at least we would get close to capturing him," an intelligence official preparing to carry out the interrogation in Kabul said.
"He has been just brought to Kabul, we will start investigating him very soon," the official, who asked to not be named, told AFP.
The official, himself involved in the anti-Taliban fight said Mujahid was a "big Taliban member".
More than two-and-a-half years after Mullah Omar's fundamentalist regime was toppled by a US-led military offensive for harbouring bin Laden, both men are still on the loose despite massive international efforts to capture them and multimillion dollar prices on their heads.
Thousands of US-led troops are in Afghanistan to hunt militants including Mullah Omar and bin Laden, blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on America.
Mr Laghmanai claimed that intelligence reports as well as information received from Mujahid suggested Mullah Omar was hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas near Kandahar and close to the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta.
"The information Mujahid provided, and also our intelligence, suggests that Omar is in Pakistan's tribal areas," he said.
Meanwhile, Afghan officials have arrested three foreigners, including an American, who were allegedly conducting a private war on terror in Kabul.
"Three foreigners who had formed a self-made group and were claiming their aims were to act against those carrying out terrorist attacks, have been arrested," Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said.
Four Afghans were also arrested along with the foreigners for allegedly illegally holding eight people in a private jail in a house near the Intercontinental Hotel in west Kabul, he said.
"They did not have any legal connection with anyone and the United States was also chasing them," Mr Jalali said. "They are actually rebels."
