It would seem the Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan are not all that secure, indicated by how another, newly-minted Taliban has been captured:

Pakistani security forces wounded and captured a prominent Taliban commander on Monday near the border area with Afghanistan, Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said.

Mullah Mansour Dadullah took over as commander of Taliban forces in the southern Afghan province of Helmand after his brother, Mullah Dadullah, was killed by British forces in May.

“We have captured Mansour Dadullah along with five other people in Baluchistan,” Nawaz told Reuters, referring to a southwestern province bordering Afghanistan..

A military statement said the Taliban commander was caught after an exchange of fire with paramilitary troops. He was trying to cross into Pakistan at Gaddal Post in Qilla Saifullah, a town in Baluchistan’s Zhob district.

“Initial information reveals that Mullah Mansour Dadullah is injured and has been arrested while trying to enter into Pakistan.”

This kind of action indicates an increase in the quality and timeliness of intelligence coming into security forces. It is just another indicator, supported by a recent poll, that local Pakistanis are fed up with the terrorists and may be supporting government forces in their efforts to eradicate them. More than that, it looks like EU or UN efforts to appease the terrorists are now off the table:

Earlier, intelligence officials in that region said Dadullah had been cornered in a house.

Mansour Dadullah had been involved in negotiations aimed at bringing him and hundreds of his fighters into the Afghan government reconciliation process, Kabul-based diplomats said.

But the prospective deal was scuppered when Afghan President Hamid Karzai expelled two European diplomats involved in the negotiations at the end of last year, saying he had not been informed of the talks.

This could be a very interesting and successful spring for the War on Terror. Which would play havoc with the Surrendercrat’s plans for the 2008 election.