Kabul– Two Taliban shadow governors from northern Afghanistan have been arrested by Pakistani authorities, an Afghan official told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Mohammmad Omar, the official governor of Kunduz province, said two of the insurgency’s shadow governors – Mullah Abdul Salam from Kunduz and Mullah Mohammad of Baghlan – were arrested about 10 to 12 days ago in Pakistan.
That’s roughly the same time that Pakistani and U.S. intelligence forces captured the Taliban’s top military commander – Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar – in Karachi, Pakistan.
Two Pakistani intelligence officials said Salam was arrested in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad. One of the officials said Salam’s arrest was the result of information gleened from Baradar, the No. 2 behind Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
A senior intelligence official with NATO has said that as of late last year, the Taliban had shadow governments in 33 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
