.Pakistan Blocks Prisoner Transfers
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—A Pakistani court has restrained the government from extraditing Afghan Taliban leaders recently detained by its intelligence services to any other country, raising the prospects of a new row between Kabul and Islamabad.
A panel of the Lahore High Court headed by Chief Justice Khawaja Sharif ordered the government not to extradite the Taliban leaders until the court gives its decision on a petition filed by a human-rights activist, Khalid Khawaja. He had filed a petition that said the Taliban leaders were arrested in Pakistan and should be tried under Pakistani laws. The court will resume its hearing on March 15.
The decision came Friday as Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an interview with a Pakistani newspaper said his government will send a formal request to Islamabad for the extradition of Afghan Taliban leaders recently rounded up in a Pakistani sweep.
Pakistani intelligence services have seized at least six senior Afghan Taliban leaders including members of the group's leadership council also known as the Quetta Shura for the name of the western Pakistani city where most of the senior Afghan insurgent leaders are believed to be residing.
Pakistani and U.S. intelligence agencies recently arrested Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a deputy to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the supreme commander of the Afghanistan Taliban movement, in the southern port city of Karachi. His detention followed the capture of some other insurgent commanders including Mullah Abdul Kabir, a former deputy prime minister in the Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime.
A senior Pakistani official familiar with the latest crackdown said six Taliban leaders are in the custody of Inter Services Intelligence, the country's main spy and counterterrorism body. They include Tayyab Popalzai, who is believed to be a close associate of Mullah Omar, and was recently arrested by security agencies. It isn't clear when and where he was seized.
In the interview with the News, a Pakistani newspaper, Mr. Karzai said that his government was soon going to send a formal request to Islamabad for the handover of Mullah Baradar and other detained Afghan leaders to the Afghan government.
"The detained Taliban leaders are Afghans, therefore their future should be decided in Afghanistan," Mr. Karzai said.
Pakistan's interior minister said earlier that the Pakistani government would consider a formal request from Kabul for the extradition of Mullah Baradar. A few hours later, a statement from the interior ministry said the detained Taliban leader could face charges for illegally entering Pakistan.On Friday, Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers attacked a major hotel and two guesthouses in the Afghan capital, killing at least 17 people and showing the group remains a potent force despite a string of recent setbacks. The dead included Indian Army officers, a French filmmaker and an Italian diplomat who was slain in his room after phoning information about the assailants to officials.
India's foreign ministry said it was trying to determine whether—a day after India held peace talks withPakistan—its nationals were deliberately targeted, a conclusion reached by Afghan police but denied by a Taliban spokesman.
WSJ
We should cut off all foreign aid, or bomb the high court.
A panel of the Lahore High Court headed by Chief Justice Khawaja Sharif ordered the government not to extradite the Taliban leaders until the court gives its decision on a petition filed by a human-rights activist, Khalid Khawaja. He had filed a petition that said the Taliban leaders were arrested in Pakistan and should be tried under Pakistani laws. The court will resume its hearing on March 15.
The decision came Friday as Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an interview with a Pakistani newspaper said his government will send a formal request to Islamabad for the extradition of Afghan Taliban leaders recently rounded up in a Pakistani sweep.
Pakistani intelligence services have seized at least six senior Afghan Taliban leaders including members of the group's leadership council also known as the Quetta Shura for the name of the western Pakistani city where most of the senior Afghan insurgent leaders are believed to be residing.
Pakistani and U.S. intelligence agencies recently arrested Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a deputy to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the supreme commander of the Afghanistan Taliban movement, in the southern port city of Karachi. His detention followed the capture of some other insurgent commanders including Mullah Abdul Kabir, a former deputy prime minister in the Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime.
A senior Pakistani official familiar with the latest crackdown said six Taliban leaders are in the custody of Inter Services Intelligence, the country's main spy and counterterrorism body. They include Tayyab Popalzai, who is believed to be a close associate of Mullah Omar, and was recently arrested by security agencies. It isn't clear when and where he was seized.
In the interview with the News, a Pakistani newspaper, Mr. Karzai said that his government was soon going to send a formal request to Islamabad for the handover of Mullah Baradar and other detained Afghan leaders to the Afghan government.
"The detained Taliban leaders are Afghans, therefore their future should be decided in Afghanistan," Mr. Karzai said.
Pakistan's interior minister said earlier that the Pakistani government would consider a formal request from Kabul for the extradition of Mullah Baradar. A few hours later, a statement from the interior ministry said the detained Taliban leader could face charges for illegally entering Pakistan.On Friday, Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers attacked a major hotel and two guesthouses in the Afghan capital, killing at least 17 people and showing the group remains a potent force despite a string of recent setbacks. The dead included Indian Army officers, a French filmmaker and an Italian diplomat who was slain in his room after phoning information about the assailants to officials.
India's foreign ministry said it was trying to determine whether—a day after India held peace talks withPakistan—its nationals were deliberately targeted, a conclusion reached by Afghan police but denied by a Taliban spokesman.
WSJ
We should cut off all foreign aid, or bomb the high court.
posted by madtom at 6:03 PM
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