The Afghan Taliban have refuted claims that reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar had written a letter to United States President Barack Obama last year, expressing an interest in holding talks. According to the Afghan Taliban, the claims made by some US officials is merely a ploy to divert people's attention from their "powerful position", which they have attained after fighting an almost ten-year-old "successful war".
After the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, the United States has pressured Pakistan 'to do more' to nab Al Qaeda activists and key Taliban leaders including Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omer. It is suspected that Omer is hiding in Quetta city of Balochistan. Responding to US's pressure, Pakistan has speeded up its efforts and is tracking Al Qaeda terrorists all across the country.
The Afghan government was holding secret talks with the Taliban's No 2 when he was captured in Pakistan, and the arrest infuriated president Hamid Karzai, according to one of Karzai's advisers.
Mohammed Omar Madni, a suspected aide of Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed, is likely to be questioned by the Mumbai police in connection with the July 11, 2006 serial train blasts case. "We are in touch with Delhi police authorities and after getting more information from them, we will send a team to interrogate him," Additional Director General (Anti-Terrorism Squad) K P Raghuvanshi said.
Mohammed Omar Madni was caught by Delhi Police's anti-terror wing's 'Special Cell' on Thursday evening from a locality near the Qutub Minar in south Delhi's Mehrauli locality.
Arrested Pakistani national Mohammad Omar Madni is a top aide of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, a prime accused in the terror attack on Mumbai. "He is a close aide of Hafiz Saeed and has been operating from Nepal for the past one year," a senior Delhi police official said. Madni has been a close aide of Saeed since 2000 and was involved in recruiting cadres for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba outfit, he said.
NATO's chief spokes-man in Kabul, Col. Tom Collins, was quoted as saying his force intends to head off the militants' assault with pre-emptive attacks against Taliban strongholds.
The tribal militants call themselves 'Pakistani Taliban,' or members of a newly-coined and loosely knit entity, the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan.
Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammed Omar was spotted last week in Pakistani city of Quetta, said the Afghan president.
'We have set up a special suicide squad that consists of 2,000 Taliban. This squad will make life a hell for the US, says Mullah Omar in an exclusive interview.
The meeting took place at Bill Clinton's request, according to a report.
Two persons, who had sustained bullet injuries, were taken to Lucknow for treatment.
The US intelligence community assesses that the Taliban leader Mullah Omar is now dead, although the circumstances of his death is not yet clear, the White House has said.
Top Taliban leader Mullah Omar was sheltered by Pakistan's powerful spy agency Inter-Services intelligence after the outfit's leadership fled from Afghanistan in 2001, according to an email received by former secretary of state Hillary Clinton during her tenure.
Pakistan, which has propped up the new Taliban leadership, would be keen to use its influence over the group to neutralise India's presence in the region.
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