Pakistan arrests scores of Taliban in crackdown

QUETTA, Pakistan, July 18 (Reuters) Pakistan arrested about 52 Taliban militants in raids overnight in the southwest province of Baluchistan, taking action that Afghanistan, the United States and NATO powers have long called for.

''They are Taliban, and they have links with those living in Afghanistan. They had no documents so we will hand them over to the Afghan authorities,'' Chaudhary Mohammad Yaqub, Baluchistan's police chief, today told Reuters.

A total 150 Afghans had been arrested during an operation in the past two days, but many of those picked up were held for not possessing proper identity papers, Yaqub said.

The Afghan government, the United States and NATO powers with forces in Afghanistan all want Pakistan to act more forcefully against the Taliban, particularly in the Baluch capital Quetta where many settled after they were ousted from power in 2001.

Among those detained in raids in Quetta yesterday evening was Mullah Hamdullah, a former commander of Taliban forces in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, where British troops have met fierce resistance since their deployment a few months ago.

Arrests of Taliban in Pakistan have been relatively rare, leading to accusations that while the government has aggressively hunted al Qaeda remnants, particularly in the tribal regions of north and south Waziristan, it has been soft on the Taliban.

President Pervez Musharraf's government had backed the Taliban prior to 2001.

US President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have spoken to Musharraf in the past few months about the need to do more to help quell the insurgency in the southern Afghan provinces.

A war of words had broken out earlier this year over what Afghanistan calls Pakistan's inaction. Pakistan countered by saying Afghan intelligence was out of date, and a rising insurgency was being fuelled from within Afghanistan.

The Baluch police chief said the operation in the past two days was principally aimed at catching Afghans illegally living in Pakistan. He said Taliban would have no protection.

''It is a continuing process and anybody who has links with the Taliban, we will nab them,'' Yaqub said.

Pakistan's past failures to follow through in the campaign against the Taliban has led to Afghan suspicions that it is letting the movement thrive in case it needs them to exert influence over its western neighbour at some point in the future.

Another reason for Pakistani hesitancy in tackling the Taliban could be fear of igniting sentiments among the millions of ethic Pashtuns living in the border areas because the Taliban are mainly Pashtuns.

Pakistan is also fighting a revolt led by powerful ethnic Baluch tribal chieftains, and would be wary of risking further instability in its mineral-rich western province, analysts say.

REUTERS SB HS1151