ISLAMABAD, July 23: Western officials in the past have suspected the Pakistani security services of turning a blind eye to the presence of Taliban leaders in Quetta.

Recent unpublicised arrests in Quetta, however, raised hopes of a sea-change in Pakistan, a senior western official said.

“We’ve seen signs of change ... yes, and arrests,” said an official in Islamabad earlier this week.

Pakistan’s security forces made a rare arrest of a senior Afghan Taliban commander near Quetta on Saturday, officials and coalition forces in Afghanistan said.

A statement issued by British forces in Afghanistan late on Tuesday said Mullah Rahim, operational commander of the Taliban forces in Helmand, had surrendered to “authorities in Pakistan”.

Pakistan had still to confirm Rahim’s capture, but security officials, who had requested anonymity, had told Reuters on Monday that a suspect believed to have been the Taliban commander in Helmand, had been caught over the weekend.

They said the man had been caught during a raid on a house in Kharotabad area of Quetta.

“We conducted a raid three days ago based on very credible information that some important Taliban figures were hiding with an Afghan family there,” a senior intelligence official said.

The British statement said that hours after Rahim’s arrest, British forces killed another senior Taliban leader, the third in as many weeks. Similar successes have been trumpeted in the past, and Taliban sources told Reuters on Wednesday that Rahim had already been replaced by Mullah Nayeem as commander in Helmand.—Reuters