CIA wants Pak to hand over Mullah Baradar to Afghanistan for interrogation

Washington, Feb.21 (ANI): The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) wants Pakistan to extradite the Taliban's second-in command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was nabbed earlier this month in Karachi, to an American prison near Kabul for further interrogation.

Senior US officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told media persons that Washington is not satisfied with Baradar's interrogation and wants to take charge.

"CIA Director Leon Panetta and other officials have proposed moving Mullah Baradar to the US-run prison at the Bagram Air Base north of Kabul," The Dawn quoted a report in the US media, as saying.

"Mullah Baradar is an Afghan, so it's only logical that his home country might be considered as an ultimate destination," said a US official.

The reports came just hours after Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that Baradar would not be handed over the US in any case.

Malik said Pakistani agencies would first investigate Baradar's links with the banned terrorist network, and could hand him over to Afghanistan if the need arises but not to the US.

"First we will see whether they have violated any law.If they have done it, then the law will take its own course against them, but at the most if they have not done anything, then they will go back to the country of origin, not to the US," Malik said.

According to some reports the CIA was denied direct access to Mullah Baradar for about two weeks after his arrest, and had since worked alongside Pakistani interrogators who continued to control the questioning.

It is also believed that Mullah Baradar had longstanding ties Pakistan's intelligence agencies, and this is the prime reason why Pakistan is reluctant to hand over the Taliban deputy to the US. (ANI)