Pakistan confirmed on Wednesday that the top Taliban military commander had been captured last week, the BBC reported.
Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, told the BBC that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was being questioned, describing the arrest as "important" without giving any details.
U.S. officials said on Tuesday that Pakistani and U.S. forces seized Mullah Baradar in a joint raid on February 8 in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city.
The Taliban have dismissed the reports, saying Mullah Baradar, who ranks second in influence only to the Taliban's founder Mullah Muhammad Omar, was still at large.
According to Interpol, Mullah Baradar, born 1968, served as deputy minister of defense for the Taliban prior to their ouster by U.S.-led forces in 2001.
The New York Times said that the role of the Pakistani spy agency in the operation may signal "a new level of cooperation" from Pakistan's senior leaders, who have been "ambivalent" about U.S.-NATO efforts to crush the radical Islamic Taliban movement.
In November 2008, an Afghan news agency revealed that the Taliban's spiritual leader Mullah Omar was hiding out in Pakistan under the protection of Pakistani spy agencies.
Violence surged in the war-ravaged Central Asian state in 2009, with the Taliban staging regular attacks on provincial government officials, police and civilians and planting roadside devices as part of its fight to regain control of the country.
In early December, U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in the first part of 2010. However, with mounting deaths among troops, the Western allies hope to start a gradual withdrawal as early as in 2011, transferring security tasks to the Afghan army and police.
MOSCOW, February 17 (RIA Novosti)
