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Security agencies arrest Mullah Obaidullah again

* Taliban leader was in Lahore to generate funds for group

By Shahnawaz Khan

LAHORE: Intelligence agencies have once again arrested the Taliban Majlis-e-Shura’s former defence minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund along with two other Afghan nationals from Lahore, along with two other Afghan nationals, intelligence sources told Daily Times on Sunday.

The sources revealed that Obaidullah had been arrested in 2006 in Quetta and was released after around nine months, after which he fled to in Afghanistan.

This time he arrived in Pakistan to generate funds, the sources said, adding that he, along with Pakistani allies, had visited several cities in this regard.

The sources revealed that Obaidullah had arrived in Pakistan in the first week of January 2008, and had contacted several influential personalities with links to banned militant organisations. During their visits, Obaidullah had, during rapid visits between cities, convinced several people to provide funding to support the Taliban’s cause, the sources added.

Later, after arriving in Lahore where he was residing in one of the city’s posh localities, the Afghans’ meetings with financially strong business personalities continued for the sake of generating funds. After a tip off, the group was arrested and shifted to an unknown location, according to the sources.

They said that Mullah Obaidullah had been the Taliban defence minister during 1996 till the US toppled the government in the fall of 2001.

He is a senior Taliban figure and is considered by American intelligence officials to have been one of the Taliban leaders closest to Osama Bin Laden, as well as part of the inner core of the Taliban leadership around Mullah Muhammad Omar. Obaidullah is a member of the Taliban Majlis-e-Shura, or executive council, and is thought to be third in command, they added.

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