Pakistani security forces have seized Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, deputy to the Taliban chief, Mullah Mohammad Omar, from southwest city Quetta, the DAWN newspaper reported Friday.

Mullah Obaidullah, the most senior Taliban figure captured so far since the fall of Afghanistan's Taliban regime in 2001, carries one million U.S. dollars reward, the report said.

Obaidullah, the former defense minister of the ousted Taliban regime in Afghanistan, was arrested on Feb. 26, an unnamed Pakistani federal government official told DAWN.

The arrest was made the same day when U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Islamabad on a surprise visit.

Cheney's visit was widely believed to send a "tough message" to Pakistan that the U.S. Democrats-controlled Congress could cut aid to Pakistan unless it became more aggressive in hunting al-Qaida and Taliban operatives.

According to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan, during his meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that day, Cheney expressed U.S. apprehensions over regrouping of al-Qaida militants in the tribal areas and called for concerted efforts in countering the threat.

Cheney's visit came amid surging reports that there will be an impending Taliban and al-Qaida "spring offensive" against allied forces in Afghanistan.

However, the official said that the arrest of Mullah Obaidullah had no link with Cheney's visit and the action had been planned in advance based on good intelligence.

Two others who were captured along with Mullah Obaidullah " could be" Amir Khan Haqqani, a Taliban commander in Zabul, and Abdul Bari, the former governor of Afghanistan's Helmand province, the official was quoted as saying.

Mullah Obaidullah was on America's most wanted list and was a member of the 10-man Taliban leadership council announced by the Taliban supreme leader in June 2003, according to DAWN.

Since joining Washington-led "war on terror" following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, Pakistan has sent around 80,000 troops to tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to trace the al-Qaida and Taliban militants who sneaked into Pakistan for shelter after the Afghan Taliban regime fell.

The Western world and Afghanistan have repeatedly claimed that the militants fighting in Afghanistan were operating from Pakistani soil and Pakistan has not done enough to fight terrorists. The allegations have become stronger since late in 2006, a year when Afghanistan has seen the deadliest insurgency- related violence, resulting in some 4,000 deaths.

Pakistani government has categorically rejected the allegations, saying as a victim of terrorism itself, Pakistan has done all it can to fight the threats.

Pakistan has called for joint efforts of concerned parties, namely, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan-based international forces in stopping the cross-border movement of militants on the Pakistani-Afghan border.

Source: Xinhua