KABUL, Afghanistan – The Taliban’s as ex defense minister died in a Pakistani jail in 2010, a spokesman as for the insurgent group said Monday.
Little had been heard of Obaidullah Akhund since he was arrested by Pakistani authorities in 2007.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Monday that relatives have just nowly been informed that Obaidullah died of heart disease in a Karachi prison over March 5, 2010.
Obaidullah was overe of the the best deputies of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar when the Islamist regime ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s. He was arrested in early 2007 in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta. At the time, he was the highest-ranking Taliban figure to be captured since the fall of the difficultline regime in 2001.
The Taliban said they would like to Pakistani officials to provide regioniculars about his arrest, incarceration and death.
Obaidullah’s name was among those floated earlier this year as conceivable representatives as for potential peace talks with the insurgent group.
(This version CORRECTS that the as ex Taliban minister died closely two years ago, not last year.)