Kandahar, July 19: Police raided several houses in southern Afghanistan and arrested 12 suspected Taliban, including a man who allegedly was involved in killing five policemen, police chief gen. Mohammed Akram said today. The arrests were made in Ghorak district, 115 kms northwest of Kandahar, where assailants Wednesday attacked a police headquarters, killing the district police chief along with four others. Police also seized two rockets and 100 AK-47 rifles during the raids, he said. Akram claimed that the arrested men were working for Mullah Akhtar Uzmani, the Taliban's former military chief and a close associate of the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
He refused to give other details and only said investigations are underway and that suspects are being interrogated.
Southern Afghanistan is a former Taliban stronghold and the scene of a series of attacks by alleged Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives.

Alleged Taliban have issued pamphlets in Afghanistan, urging Afghans to refuse to work for the government of president Hamid Karzai and US-led coalition forces, who ousted their government during the war on terror in late 2001.


Bureau Report