Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Sources in the Afghan Taliban movement have claimed that Pakistani authorities have arrested senior members of the Taliban Supreme council and known Taliban cleric Mullah Ahmadullah Nanay in Quetta on Tuesday. The sources claimed that Mullah Ahmadullah Nanay was taken in to custody from the seminary of Mullah Abdul Hakim in Satellite Town area of Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan province. However, the news could not be confirmed with the Pakistani authorities.

Mullah Nanay is one of the senior-most members of the 23-member strong Taliban Rahbari Shura. He was also the head of the Dawat-e-Jalb wa Jazb/ Auqaf commission of the Afghan Taliban. The commission is responsible for contacting and luring opponents to join the Taliban cause.

Mullah Nanay was an ex-Taliban governor in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif and had also served as the Minister for Public Works during the Taliban era between 1996 and 2001. He was also a close aide of the Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund. Mullah Baradar was also arrested by Pakistani agencies in Karachi in 2010. He was later released in 2013.

Mullah Ahmadullah Nanay was also a trusted advisor the late Taliban head and notorious terrorist Mullah Mansour. He belonged to Maiwand district of Kandahar province and had a very large following there.