http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/world/asia/zabiullah-mujahid-captured-by-afghan-forces-officials-say.html

November 14, 2011

Taliban Spokesman Denies Being Captured

By FAROUQ JAN MANGAL and ROD NORDLAND

KHOST, Afghanistan -- A Taliban spokesman whose provocative and taunting media reports have often infuriated Afghan and Western officials firmly denied that he had been captured on Monday.

Reached on his usual cellphone number a few hours after Afghan officials announced his capture, the spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, angrily denied his arrest. "I am talking to you on the phone right now," he told an Afghan reporter who has frequently interviewed him in the past. "I am safe and sound and living in a safe place."

The reporter said his voice matched that of the man who over the past year has been the spokesman for Taliban activities in eastern and northern Afghanistan.

Afghan officials and those with the international forces operating here have maintained that Mr. Mujahid -- one of two Taliban spokesmen -- is not an individual, but rather a persona used by a number of Taliban insurgents adopting the same name and Afghan cellphone numbers, and operating from Pakistan just across the border.

However, many Afghan journalists he speaks to by telephone maintain that his voice has not changed at least in the past year, suggesting he is a single individual, as he -- or his persona -- has insisted.

Whether persona or person, Mr. Mujahid is regarded even by some of his enemies as an effective communicator, reacting quickly to events and using a variety of new media to get the Taliban's message out.

The arrest had been reported in the Sar Hawza District, in the remote district in Paktika Province, in eastern Afghanistan along the Pakistan border, where the Taliban have been active. Two weeks ago, they killed the district governor on their second attempt to do so.

An Afghan government official there reported that Mr. Mujahid was among the suspects detained during joint coalition and Afghan military operations in the district. A second government official in Paktika confirmed the account. Both spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to release the information.

"Those people who were arrested in Paktika do not belong to us," Mr. Mujahid said. "They are just some innocent civilians, and the forces of the puppet government may have forced the guy to confess and say he is Zabiullah Mujahid.

"As I said, I am safe and on the run and always looking after myself."

Others seemed to confirm his arrest. In Kabul the spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Sediq Sediqi, said, "Our initial reports and findings show that the arrested man is Zabiullah Mujahid, but our investigations are still ongoing."

General Aziz, the commander of Afghan Local Police in Paktika Province, said informants led authorities to the suspect, who confessed to being Mr. Mujahid, but the suspect maintained he was one of several insurgents who use that alias. (General Aziz uses only one name, a common practice in Afghanistan.) But a spokesman for the Paktika Governor, Muhklis Afghan, was more doubtful. "One of those detained may have been the spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, but we are not sure yet," Mr. Afghan said.

A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force said the NATO-led military coalition was aware of the reports but he had no confirmation of the arrest, and he was unsure if there were any coalition operations in that area of Paktika.

Only the day before his supposed capture, on Sunday, Mr. Mujahid was responsible for e-mailing facsimile copies of a secret Afghan and coalition security plan for protecting the coming loya jirga, a grand gathering of Afghans convened by President Hamid Karzai. While officials denied that the security plan was genuine, if it was a fake, it was an elaborate one. Many details in it, like private phone numbers of intelligence officers, made it appear legitimate. The security plan was also posted on a Taliban Web site.

On Monday, Latfullah Mashal, the spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence agency, said security forces had killed a suicide bomber as he tried to enter the gate of the Polytechnic University, which is where the loya jirga is going to be held.  

But he said the e-mailed security plan was a fake. "It's not our plan, or if it is our plan, it's the previous loya jirga plan," he said, speaking to journalists Monday. "The plan Zabiullah Mujahid sent to you -- he sent it to me also in my e-mail -- if it was the genuine plan then the Taliban would not have made it public, they would have used it."

He said the failure of their attack had driven the Taliban to rely "on a kind of psy-ops instead."

Taliban insurgents did attack the last loya jirga, narrowly missing Mr. Karzai with a rocket attack, and prompting him to dismiss his interior and intelligence ministers.

Farouq Jan Mangal reported from Khost, Afghanistan, and Rod Nordland from Kabul. Sharifullah Sahak and Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting from Kabul.