Top Taliban militant surrenders to Pakistan

The most senior militant in the war-torn Helmand province of Afghanistan has surrendered to authorities in Pakistan, the Ministry of Defence said last night.

Mullah Rahim, a senior Afghan Taliban commander, feared being killed by British special forces and gave himself up to police on the Afghan-Pakistani border. He is currently being held in the town of Quetta.

Rahim's surrender will no doubt strike a blow to the heart of the insurgency, who is thought to be one of the five main Taliban commanders.

Pakistan’s security forces have arrested a senior Afghan Taleban commander in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, according to British officials, who hailed it as a significant breakthrough yesterday. Mullah Rahim, the most senior Taleban leader in Helmand province, gave himself up on Saturday, a statement from British Forces in Afghanistan said.

The US and Britain have often complained that Pakistan is not doing enough to arrest or kill top Taleban leaders who are sheltering in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, or its lawless northern tribal areas.

That, combined with a build-up of Nato troops near the Afghan border, has sparked fears among Pakistani officials that Nato troops might launch a unilateral strike on Taleban positions inside Pakistan.

Pakistan has opposed any such action on the grounds that it would violate its sovereignty, enrage its mainly Muslim population and escalate an internal conflict in the ethnic Pashtun borderlands.