Taliban hold 31; US envoy clashes with Pakistan

KABUL, Sunday (Reuters) - Taliban guerrillas said they were holding 30 policemen and a local official at an Afghan district headquarters and planned to put them on trial for supporting the U.S.-backed government.

Amid a spate of violence elsewhere in the troubled south, the outgoing US ambassador courted trouble with key ally Pakistan by saying there was a big chance Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was hiding there.

The envoy, future Iraq ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, was speaking in an interview with Afghanistan's Aina Television amid the violence in the south in which several guerrillas and members of the Afghan security forces were reported killed and a U.S. soldier wounded.

He sharply criticised Islamabad's failure to act against Taliban leaders in his comments broadcast on Friday night that Pakistan's Foreign Ministry branded "irresponsible".

Meanwhile, a senior police officer in the southern province of Kandahar confirmed that the main government building in Mian Nishin, capital of the district of the same name, was under Taliban control after attacks on Thursday and Friday night in which 30 police officers and the district chief were captured.

Taliban commander Mullah Rahim, who led the attacks, telephoned Reuters and handed the phone to the senior police officer in his custody, district police chief Nanai Khan.

"They are going to put me on trial," said a nervous Khan.

Asked if any of the group had been killed, Khan initially replied: "Yes." But after a few seconds of silence on the line, he corrected himself and replied: "No, no." Rahim said none of the prisoners had been killed and their fate would be decided by religious leaders.

"We will put them on trial. We won't kill anyone until the mullahs issue a fatwah (ruling). When the mullahs issue a fatwah, we will decide."

Asked what the men were accused of, Rahim said: "They were working for the government. We have told people many times not to work with the government."

The district is in the north of Kandahar province about 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Kabul and was the scene of joint operations by Afghan and U.S.-led forces early this week in which government officials said nine guerrillas were killed.