PAKISTAN: The former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan and one the most visible faces of the now-defunct hardline Muslim regime, Mr Abdul Salam Zaeef, was taken yesterday from his Islamabad residence for questioning by Pakistani security officials, his family said.
"People believed to be from the intelligence services came in two vehicles and took him to an unknown place," assuring the family, however, that "there was nothing to worry about" and that he would return home later, Mr Zaeef's nephew, Hamidullah, said.
Mr Zaeef told the Afghan Islamic Press yesterday that he had committed no crime to bar him from being granted asylum, which he said he requested because "the situation in Afghanistan is not conducive" to his return.
"I am not a criminal . . . I only performed my duty as a diplomat," AIP quoted him as saying.
Pakistani foreign ministry officials said no action had yet been taken on the request.
Mr Zaeef shot to prominence with his globally covered daily news briefings in Islamabad after the October 7th start of the US-led military campaign.
His diplomatic status ended when Islamabad withdrew recognition from the Taliban after it was chased out of Kabul by the US-backed Northern Alliance on November 13th.
The questioning of Mr Zaeef came amid reports of negotiations for the surrender of Mullah Mohammad Omar.
The Taliban commander, Abdul Ahad, better known as Rayes Baghran - or the Chief of Baghran - said he would surrender along with his force of up to 1,500 men, said Mr Nusrat Ullah, from Kandahar's provincial intelligence services.
The commander of the Taliban forces trapped in Helmand province, east of Kandahar, said he and his 1,500 fighters would also turn themselves in if the air raids stop, Mr Nusrat said by telephone.
The surrender of Mullah Omar and what is presumably the last major pocket of Taliban resistance should be settled through talks and not through war, Mr Nusrat quoted Abdul Ahad as saying.
"Baghran district had been heavily bombarded, which is why they are talking of the surrender of their weapons and the handover of Mullah Omar," Mr Nusrat said.
An official in Kabul said British military engineers were scouring the five future bases of the international peacekeeping force expected to number 4,500 by the end of the month, for mines and unexploded ordnance because they "are not yet safe."
Until the bases are cleared, another officer said, "troops will continue to be based at the ISAF headquarters."
But Afghan civilian staff and soldiers are still finding unexploded mines, bullets and mortars within the grounds of the ISAF headquarters, inside the old Afghan officers' sports club, opposite the US embassy.
Senior British officers described the mine threat as more dangerous than in recent peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and Bosnia. "I think, for the engineers, it's a bigger challenge than anything we have faced recently," one military demining expert said. "To be honest, if you took the catalogue of the world's mines, you would find them all here," he added.