ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: Two men detained by the authorities in Quetta last week and identified as former ministers in the Taliban regime were not linked to the vanquished hardline movement, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported on Sunday.

Quoting relatives and neighbours of the two men, the AIP said they simply had the same names as the two ministers.

Police identified the two men detained on Wednesday near Quetta as former Taliban chief justice, Maulvi Noor Mohammad Saqib, and deputy foreign minister, Maulvi Abdul Rehman Zahid.

“We tried our best to convince the police that my son...is not the one they were looking for, but the police did not listen,” AIP quoted Saqib’s father, Abdul Baqi, as saying.

The AIP also quoted Abdul Baseer as saying that Rehman was not the Taliban deputy foreign minister.

“His name is Abdul Rehman but police insisted he was Abdul Rehman Zahid,” Baseer said. “He lives with a widowed mother and is not the former deputy foreign minister who is wanted by the police.”—Reuters