PESHAWAR/KHAR: A senior commander of Pakistani Taliban has been captured by Afghan intelligence personnel in a border area.

Security officials said reports about Maulvi Faqir Mohammad’s arrest in Afghanistan appeared to be correct.

Reports from Afghanistan said Afghan intelligence agencies had captured Maulvi Faqir, who was deputy to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakeemullah Mehsud until 2011, and his four aides when they were trying to cross into Pakistan from Nangrahar.

A Pakistani security official said: “This is big news. We are reasonably sure that reports of his arrest are correct but unless the Afghans officially confirm it we would not like to say anything publicly on this.

“This has confirmed what we have been saying all along that Maulvi Faqir and others have fled and taken shelter in Afghanistan. We hope that others like him, who also are hiding there, would also be captured.”

Another security official said the reports of the capture of one of the most senior TTP figures in Afghanistan were true.

An administration official in Maulvi Faqir’s native Bajaur tribal region said the fugitive militant had been captured in Basawal, eastern Afghanistan, while trying to cross over into Khyber Agency’s Tirah valley. Local militants also said Maulvi Faqir had been captured along with his aides Maulana Hakim, Shahid Khan, Maulvi Turrabi and Fathi Khan.