A Pakistani Taliban commander
who had escaped in mass prison break two years ago was arrested again
last week, Pakistani intelligence sources told CNN on Tuesday.
Adnan Rashid, a prominent
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan commander, was captured Friday, the sources
said. He was injured, but authorities were questioning him, one source
said. Sources told CNN he was taken into custody in South Waziristan
province and had since been moved.
But the Pakistani Taliban told CNN the report was baseless and that Rashid is in a safe area.
Authorities
have said Rashid is responsible for several large prison breaks in
Pakistan. In 2004, he was sentenced to death for planning an attack on
former President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 2003.
He
was incarcerated at Bannu prison in northwest Pakistan and was freed,
as were 400 other inmates, when militants stormed the facility in 2012.
Rashid
also wrote a controversial letter to Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani
schoolgirl shot in the head on her way home from school in 2012. He told
her she was targeted not because she advocated education for girls, but
rather for her criticism of the militant group.
In
the letter, Rashid said he was writing — not as a Taliban leader — to
say he was shocked by the shooting, and to express his regret that he
did not warn Malala of the attack.
The letter went on to say that the Taliban supports the education of women, as long as it adheres to Islamic law.
The letter drew criticism from people who said the Taliban are known to target female students.
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