Pakistan envoy’s kidnappers demand release of top Taliban leader

The militants holding Azizuddin, his driver and bodyguard have demanded the release of Taliban leader Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, widely considered to have been the military chief of the Taliban and who once carried a reward of one million dollars on his head.

They have also demanded the release of five or six other Pakistani and Afghan militants held by Pakistani authorities, the Dawn quoted a highly placed source as saying on Sunday.

Akhund, the deputy to elusive Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, was captured by Pakistani security forces in Quetta on March 1 last year, coinciding with US Vice-President Dick Cheney’s visit to Islamabad.

Azizuddin, his driver and a bodyguard were abducted while driving from his home in the North West Frontier Province capital of Peshawar to Kabul on February 11.

The Pakistani Taliban are led by Baitullah Mehsud, a militant commander based in South Waziristan who was blamed by President Pervez Musharraf for masterminding the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto. Mehsud had earlier demanded the release of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund in return for 256 Pakistani soldiers captured in South Waziristan last year.