Pakistan helps Omar, suspect says

A self-described Taliban spokesman has told Afghan agents that the militia’s chief, Mullah Mohammed Omar, lives in southwestern Pakistan and is protected by that country’s powerful intelligence service.

Pakistan denied the allegation by Mohammed Hanif, made on a video given to reporters Wednesday.

Omar’s whereabouts have been a mystery since he went into hiding after the Taliban government he headed was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks. The U.S. government has offered $10 million for his capture.

Afghanistan’s intelligence service, which distributed the video, said Hanif talked about Omar while being interrogated after his arrest Monday near the Pakistani border.

“He lives in Quetta,” Hanif said of Omar. The video shows him sitting in an oversized chair answering questions from Afghan agents in a dim room. “He is protected by ISI,” Hanif says, referring to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a similar allegation during an interview last year.

Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao rejected Hanif’s claim.

“We have no information on the whereabouts of Mullah Omar. He is not living in Pakistan,” Sherpao said. “Afghan intelligence has made contradictory statements since the arrest of this so-called spokesman of Taliban. We don’t know who this person is.”