Pakistani security forces have arrested the head of an Afghan militant group responsible for kidnapping three U.N. workers in neighbouring Afghanistan, the information minister said on Saturday. "Yes, we arrested Syed Akbar Agha, the chief of Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), in Karachi around 10 days ago," minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed told Reuters. "He was the mastermind of the kidnapping of U.N. workers in Afghanistan," he said. Jaish-e Muslimeen, a small splinter faction of the Afghan Taliban formed earlier this year, is active in the Pashtun-dominated southern parts of Afghanistan. In October, the group abducted U.N. workers Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Kosovan Shqipe Hebibi and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan in Kabul. The three were freed unharmed on Nov. 23. Habib Noorzad, a senior member of Jaish-e Muslimeen, denied that Agha, a former Taliban governor, was arrested. "It is all part of the propaganda," he said by satellite telephone on Saturday from his hideout somewhere in southern Afghanistan. "He was in our contact till yesterday," he said. But a military commander of Jaish-e Muslimeen, Ishaq Manzoor, said it was possible Agha had been arrested. "We are trying to confirm the report. He was not in our contact for the past several days." Ahmed, the Pakistani information minister, said Agha was arrested when security forces raided a flat. "He was living there with his family members who have not been arrested," he said. "He is still with Pakistani security forces and is being interrogated," he added. Pakistani officials say they had kept Agha's arrest secret in order to capture his associates. "Any premature leak of news about the arrest helps other culprits to flee," one official said. It was not immediately clear whether any other Jaish-e Muslimeen members had been caught. Agha's arrest is seen as a blow to the Jaish-e Muslimeen, which has attacked cargo trucks and exploded bombs, mainly in southern Afghanistan.
