QUETTA, Oct 4: The law-enforcement agencies have arrested Latif Hakimi, the chief spokesman of Taliban Movement with five other Taliban suspects from Balochistan. “Latif Hakimi has been arrested and was under interrogation,” Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, the Federal Interior Minister confirmed to media men, on Tuesday.

According to sources, Latif Hakimi was arrested three days back from a house in the outskirts of Quetta with five other people,” sources said and added that a satellite and two mobile phones and a fax machine was recovered from his possession.

Sources said that law-enforcement agencies and some senior officials raided a house where Hakimi was found and was taken into custody.

He was later shifted to unknown place along with five other Taliban suspects for interrogation. Some sources said that he was shifted to Islamabad. However, no official was available to comment.

Agencies add: Hakimi has been the main spokesman for the Taliban, who were ousted by US-led forces in 2001.

He was frequently in touch with reporters, speaking by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.

Hakimi often made outlandish claims on behalf of Taliban fighters, saying they had inflicted huge casualties on US and Afghan government troops.

But his information was also, at times, very accurate.

Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Hakimi was arrested in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan.

“We’re interrogating him and we expect to get some important information from him,” he said.

Asked if Hakimi would be handed over to the United States, as have other Taliban and Al Qaeda militants arrested in Pakistan, Ahmed said: “First we will interrogate him and then we will see.”

An official in Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s office welcomed the news.

“We are grateful for his arrest. Hakimi was someone who claimed the deaths of innocent people,” Khaliq Ahmad said. “We hope that his arrest leads to more arrests.”

He could not say whether Afghanistan would request that he be handed over to Afghan custody. A US military spokesman in the Afghan capital, Kabul, said he had no immediate comment.

Hakimi last called Reuters on Monday at around 4pm to deny an Afghan government report that 31 Taliban had been killed in fighting with government troops.

“They’re lying,” Hakimi said. “We were the attackers and we killed 11 Afghan soldiers. Only three Taliban were injured.”

The Afghan Defence Ministry said eight government troops had been wounded.

PROBLEMS: Hakimi frequently vowed unending jihad against US and government forces and angrily rejected suggestions of reconciliation.

Late last year, responding to a US call for the Taliban to lay down their arms, he said peace would not resolve Afghanistan’s problems.

“They are the criminals for destroying our homeland,” he said of the United States.

“Our problems will not be solved through peace. None of the mujahideen will compromise with them and the mujahideen are standing against the enemies.