The capture of the Taliban's number two is actually bad news for the U.S.

While this was the first time Pakistan had acted against the Taliban leadership, Afghans involved in western-backed attempts to start talks with the Taliban to end the war were furious, warning that the arrest might have ruined chances of negotiations.

“It’s a spectacular own goal [for the US],” said one official. “They want to wreck talks,” said a close aide to Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai…

“The timing of this arrest was very peculiar,” said Barmak Pazhwak, a senior official for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the United States Institute of Peace, a think tank. “The fact he was one of the key Taliban leaders advocating talks suggests the Pakistanis either want more control or to sabotage the process altogether.”…

“The ISI is arresting the Taliban leaders who are reconcilable,” said Idrees Khan, a human rights activist in Peshawar. “By doing this, they want to save them from being killed by those Taliban who don’t want to accept peace.”