KABUL (AP) — Pakistan's government is hearing criticism from a former U.N. envoy to Afghanistan, over its arrest of top Taliban figures.
He says the arrests put a stop to secret U.N. contacts with the insurgency -- just when the talks were starting to gather momentum.
Kai Eide (ky EYE'-duh) is a Norwegian diplomat who recently stepped down from the U.N. post in Kabul. He says Pakistan must have known the roles being played by the Taliban's second-ranking leader and others, in efforts to find a political resolution to the Afghan war.
Pakistan denies that the arrests were linked to the reconciliation talks.
Last month's detention of Mullah Baradar is said to have infuriated Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
A Karzai adviser says Baradar had given the go-ahead for taking part in a peace conference Karzai is hosting next month.
But a Pakistani military spokesman says Baradar's arrest -- which he says came in a joint operation with the U.S. -- wasn't connected to any peace talks.
