Pakistani police arrested 17 Afghans suspected of being Taliban militants, including a former Kabul police chief and a provincial governor, police said on Friday. The men were arrested in overnight raids in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, provincial police chief Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob told Reuters. "Seventeen have been arrested, all Afghans," he said. "They have been staying without legal documents. Some of them held important positions in the previous regime in Afghanistan. One was a governor and another the police chief of Kabul," Yaqoob said, while declining to identify the men. The arrests did not appear connected to a recent spate of anti-government violence in Baluchistan province, which has involved local separatists rather than Islamic militants. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi denied that any Taliban figures had been arrested, saying: "Those arrested have nothing to do with the Taliban. No Taliban commanders or officials are present in Pakistan." Yaqoob said he did not know if any of those arrested had links to al Qaeda. "We are investigating," he said.
