Top Taliban officials in custody in Pakistan

The arrests are among the biggest victories yet for security forces, but the army faces an uphill battle to control the Swat valley.

LAHORE // Weeks before his arrest yesterday, the vocal and enigmatic spokesman of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan told The National his organisation would continue strong even after the death of the group's leader Baitullah Mehsud. In a telephone conversation from an undisclosed location, he had said: "The Taliban have a just cause and are fighting for the survival of Islam and for the betterment of Pakistan. Allah will help us always."

Early yesterday the rumours broke and by late afternoon the news was confirmed - Muslim Khan, perhaps the most oft-quoted member of the Pakistani Taliban, had been arrested by Pakistani security forces, as the army intensified its campaign against the Taliban in Swat Valley and the tribal belt of Waziristan. For the last few years, Mr Khan has been playing an essential role in his organisation by simultaneously managing to be accessible to journalists and inaccessible to the army.

After every suicide bombing Mr Khan would stay busy working the phones, taking ownership of the attacks and putting forth the point of view of his leader, Maulana Fazlullah. The stocky 50-year-old is said to have worked in the merchant navy until 2002. "His role was extremely important and he played a significant role in disseminating the message of Mehsud and the Tehrik-i-Taliban to the public," said the Lahore-based journalist Asad Khan. "He was in contact with all the renowned journalists of the country and knew how to reach out to them in a second."

Mr Khan was picked up along with his companion Mahmood Khan, who was also a much-wanted Taliban commander early yesterday morning: both of them had bounties of 10 million rupees (Dh445,000) on their heads. Muslim Khan was number two on the list of most-wanted terrorists from Swat, while Mahmood Khan was number four. Both were considered to be instrumental in assisting Maulana Fazlullah in spreading fear throughout the picturesque valley.

Their arrests are arguably the biggest victories the army has scored so far as it continues to battle the Taliban in the North West Frontier Province and are being widely heralded in Pakistan as a huge blow to the Taliban. The arrests come only weeks after the charismatic Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed along with his wife and other companions in a drone attack which targeted his father-in-law's house.

"To say the least, the Taliban are having a bad month or two," said the political analyst Hassan Askari. "To put things in perspective, for reasons of secrecy the Taliban have a very limited inner circle and only a choice few are aware of the workings of this organisation. So the large number of foot soldiers who are part of the Taliban are more or less fully dependant on the choice few. Muslim Khan was definitely part of these few, and with him gone the Taliban have yet another important slot to fill."

According to the Pakistan army spokesman Major Gen Athar Abbas, Mr Khan was arrested along with four other Taliban commanders from Swat. The general described the operation "as successful" but refused to elaborate. The interior minister Rahman Malik confirmed the capture at a press conference in Islamabad yesterday when he went on to assure the press that this was just the beginning. "The Taliban will be defeated", he said, "and so will every other party which is working against the interests of Pakistan. The militants have no choice - they either have to surrender or they will be killed."

Despite the self-congratulatory mood yesterday, Mr Khan is the only prominent leader of the Taliban arrested so far. After Baitullah Mehsud's death, Hakeemullah Mehsud became the next chief of the organisation and Wali-u-Rehman became the chief lieutenant: most of these men remain at large, along with the highly publicised Maulana Fazlullah, who has been leading the Taliban in Swat. The army rebuts these arguments by saying they have killed more than 2,000 insurgents so far, losing more than 300 soldiers. None of these figures can be independently verified since the army does not allow journalists into the area.

A militant from another insurgent organisation, which has close ties to the Taliban, said on condition of anonymity that the army was fighting the battle the wrong way. "The army should be going after the bigwigs of the Taliban, the leaders and the brains behind the organisation," he said. "Rather, they are insisting on killing the foot soldiers who hardly have any authority whatsoever. By killing the commandos instead of the commanders, the army is just fuelling anger in the region."

But Rasool Baksh Raees, a professor of political science at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, said the army's strategy has been effective. "The army is trying to go after all tiers of Taliban leadership be it the very top or the middle-tier. Considering how well entrenched the Taliban are in Waziristan and how difficult it is to go after them, I don't think this is a bad strategy at all.

"Every time one of their own is arrested or killed, the public image of the Taliban is tarnished meaning that fewer and fewer people aspire to become a part of them. If the army can effectively disenfranchise the Taliban from the public, the battle is won." So far the Taliban have remained silent on the arrest of the middle-aged man with the long flowing hair who had become the public face of the organisation.

* The National