[Dawn] South Korean police said Friday they had arrested a Pakistani man who claimed to be member of the Taliban on charges of using a fake passport.
The 31-year-old, who said he was a Muslim cleric, was detained Thursday at his home in the southeastern city of Daegu, where he lives with his family, they said.
| He's definitely not from around there ... |
"He allegedly told friends that he was a Taliban member but his claims have yet to be verified," an investigator told AFP on condition of anonymity.
| Why verify them? He said it; jug him and give him ten to twenty years to recant ... |
| If he really is a Talib, they want to question him thoroughly; if he is merely a blowhard or nuts, they needn't waste the time of skilled interrogators. |
The man had used the passport of another Pakistani to come into or leave South Korea 17 times since August 2003, the investigator said.
| Jail him on that basis alone, then figure out what he is. |
Yonhap news agency said the man told police he was asked by Taliban leaders to collect information about US military bases in South Korea. Some 28,500 US troops are stationed in the country.
South Korea plans to send 350 troops and 140 reconstruction workers to Afghanistan later this year. A purported Taliban spokesman has warned that South Koreans "should be prepared for the consequence of their action which they will certainly face", accusing Seoul of breaking a promise not to send troops back to Afghanistan.
South Korea, a close US ally, sent 210 engineering and medical troops to Afghanistan in 2002. It withdrew them in late 2007 after Taliban insurgents took 23 South Korean church volunteers hostage and murdered two of them. Seoul said the withdrawal was already planned and not part of any deal. |