Taliban deny talks with Eide

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, March 22 (UPI) -- Taliban leaders in Afghanistan denied detained militant leaders spoke with former U.N. special envoy Kai Eide before their arrest by Pakistani officials.

Eide told the BBC last week that he was in contact with the Taliban leadership since 2009. He blamed the recent arrest of several high-profile Taliban leaders for undermining reconciliation efforts.

"The effect of (the arrests), in total, certainly, was negative on our possibilities to continue the political process that we saw as so necessary at that particular juncture," said Eide in an interview at his home near Oslo, Norway.

Mohammad Yousaf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, told the Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press that there were no such contacts, however.

"We don't know what objective Mr. Eide wants to achieve by telling such lies," he was quoted in Pakistan's Dawn newspaper as saying. "Taliban held no negotiations with Kai Eide or any other U.N. official."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was said to be particularly incensed over the arrest of Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Baradar was detained February in Karachi during a joint CIA raid with the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency. He was one of the highest ranking Taliban officials arrested since U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001.

Authorities suggested reaching out to leading members of insurgent groups like the Taliban could contribute to the political reconciliation effort in Afghanistan.