PAKISTANI security forces have captured top Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar, weeks after the reported death of his boss, feared warlord Baitullah Mehsud, military officials said today. The bearded and heavy-set Omar, a leading spokesman for the militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was arrested by a local militia yesterday in the northwest tribal district of Mohmand, officials said."A very, very important militant has been arrested," said Major Fazal Ur Rehman, head of the military's media cell, declining to give the militant's identity ahead of a news conference in Mohmand.
But government, military and security officials confirmed the detainee was Omar, and photos of the militant in detention were widely circulated.
Omar - a former perfume seller who joined Taliban ranks as a fighter in 2004 - was a close aide of Mehsud, who Washington has accused of being "a key al-Qaeda facilitator" in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border.
Javed Ali Khan, a local government official in Mohmand, said a tribal militia picked up Omar and two associates as they travelled in a car late Monday and handed them over to security forces.
Residents and officials in the area said the TTP spokesman's real name was Sayed Mohammad, and Maulvi Omar was his guerrilla name.
Believed to be about 40 years old, Omar rose to become the insurgents' spokesman in 2007 - the same year Mehsud took over as top Taliban commander after one-legged former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Abdullah Mehsud was killed. Omar frequently called reporters to claim responsibility for a string of deadly assaults.
Attacks linked to militants have killed more than 2,000 people around Pakistan in the past two years, and most have been blamed on TTP.
Mehsud was reported killed earlier this month in a US drone missile strike in South Waziristan. Islamabad has stopped short of confirming his death, but officials say TTP is plagued with infighting over his succession. The Taliban has denied this and says its leader is simply "a bit sick," but has provided no evidence that he is still alive.