PESHAWAR, Sept 11 The military said on Friday it had arrested Muslim Khan, the spokesman for the Swat-based Taliban, and four other senior commanders from the outskirts of Mingora, the headquarters of Swat district.

Reports varied about the circumstances leading to the capture of the 55-year-old public face of militancy in Swat.

Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, the military spokesman, said in a short press statement on Friday that the tall well-built man, with a salt and pepper beard and long hair, had been arrested after an operation, along with a senior commander and three others, from the outskirts of Mingora.

Muslim Khan and another senior Taliban commander, Mehmood, carried a reward of Rs10 million each on their head.

Their capture, no doubt, will increase the confidence of a sceptical public in Swat that has been raising questions and doubts about the effectiveness of the military operation because of the failure to kill or capture any member of the Swat TTP leadership.

Last month, security forces had arrested Tehrik-i-Taliban spokesman Maulvi Mohammad Omar in Mohmand.

The other three captured men included Fazal Ghaffar alias Mufti Bashir, who was the TTP's commander in Shamozai, Charbagh commander Abdur Rehman and Siraj, the brother of Matta commander Shamsher.

The spokesman denied a newspaper report which quoted a junior Taliban spokesman in Swat that the five men had been arrested while undertaking peace talks with the military authorities in Islamabad.

“We have already declared that no talks will be held with any terrorist,” the military spokesman asserted.

A senior military officer said that the five men were captured from near Tiligram, to the northeast of Mingora, following a tip-off last week.

“It was purely an intelligence-driven operation”, the officer said. He said that seventy to eighty soldiers took part in the operation following information that militant leaders were sitting in conclave at a house in Tiligram.

“There was a fire-fight in which six of their guards were killed. We instantly recognised Muslim Khan and Commander Mehmood. We realised that we had some big fish,” he said.

The captured men, he said, were immediately shifted to Rawalpindi for interrogation. “He was not cooperating on day one,” the officer said of Muslim Khan. But he began cooperating on the second day.

He said that based on an intelligence provided by Muslim Khan and the other men that they had had a meeting with Swat TTP chief Maulana Fazlullah, a massive manhunt was launched in an area spread over 70 square kilometres between Manglawar and Malam Jabba four days ago.

The search operation involves four battalions of infantry — and about 4,000 to 5,000 commandos — to track down Fazlullah and his dreaded lieutenant, Ibne Ameen.

“We did not want to disclose their arrest since we were getting a lot of useful information from them,” he explained.

“They told us that there are a large number of heavily-armed hard core militants there and that 'you cannot enter that area'. But so far, we have encountered and engaged small groups of ten or so militants,” he said.

There were speculations that the truth might be lying somewhere in between the two versions.

A security official had a couple of months ago hinted at the arrest of Muslim Khan's wife and children, besides some other relatives, from the outskirts of Peshawar.

It is understood that many top TTP leaders had relocated their families to places other than Swat, including Peshawar and Mardan, to keep them safe in the face of a military operation in the restive region.

“Wait for the day when Muslim Khan will blow something in Fazlullah's face,” the security official had quipped.

It appeared that a worried Muslim Khan, who as the TTP Swat spokesman had acknowledged the slaughter and murder of so many innocent civilians and countless law enforcers, remained in touch with security agencies to negotiate their surrender.

It is possible that Muslim Khan might have succumbed to pressure and agreed to surrender under the pretext of peace talks with the government.

The same goes for Commander Mehmood, whose family is also believed to have been picked up by security agencies a few months ago.

The military spokesman declined to comment on the matter, saying that further disclosures would undermine the search operation in Swat.

In any event, the capture of senior TTP Swat leadership has dealt a significant blow to the beleaguered Swat militants boxed in an area with towering peaks.

Security officials say they are more confident than ever that the leads provided to them by the captured militant commanders would lead them to Fazlullah.

Born on Aug 8, 1954, in Swat's Kuza Banda tehsil, Muslim Khan matriculated in humanities group from Jehanzeb College, Swat. It was there that he joined the People's Students Federation — student wing of the Pakistan People's Party — during the early 1970s.

He joined the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation as a seaman, but left two years later to go to Kuwait to work in a transport company. He returned home when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and set up a medical store.

Muslim Khan went to the United States in 1999 where he worked as a house painter. He is fluent in English, Arabic, Persian and Urdu, besides mother tongue Pushto, and has travelled to 15 countries in Europe and the Middle East.