By Xinhua
Kabul : A purported Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, Thursday denied that he was captured by the police as the Afghan interior ministry claimed earlier.
“I am not captured at all. Maybe, the Afghan police detained someone else. It is just propaganda of the government,” Ahmadi told Xinhua from an undisclosed place.
The Afghan interior ministry said Thursday morning that Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, was arrested in the southern Helmand province.
“In an operation in Sufian village Wednesday afternoon, the police arrested Ahmadi along with his brother,” the statement said.
A vehicle, two motorbikes, one satellite phone and one mobile phone were also seized, it added.
Some Afghan journalists say “Ahmadi” is just a pseudonym, under which three or four Taliban members release information regularly. Possibly the Afghan police just captured one of them.
“Ahmadi” had announced much of latest information during the scenario of the kidnapping of 23 South Koreans from July to August.
If the ministry’s saying were true, the captured “Ahmadi” would be the third Taliban spokesman arrested over the past two years in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The other two were Abdul Latif Hakimi and Hanif.
Hakimi was exchanged for a kidnapped Italian journalist this March, while Hanif is still in custody.