Pakistan arrests ex-Taliban spokesman

Islamabad, Jan.3 (ANI): Pakistan has arrested a former Taliban spokesman, who was released by Afghanistan in 2007 in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist.

The Dawn quoted security officials as saying that Ustad Mohammed Yasir was detained in Peshawar, near the Afghan border.

Yasir was Taliban leader Mullah Omar's spokesman after the regime's fall in Afghanistan in 2001, an official said Saturday.

He said Pakistan first arrested Yasir in 2005 and sent him to Afghanistan, where he was released along with four other Taliban figures for journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

A Peshawar police official confirmed the arrest.(ANI)