Afghan Pro-Taliban Leader Blows Himself Up

QUETTA, Pakistan — A former Guantanamo Bay inmate who led pro-Taliban fighters in Pakistan after his release died yesterday when he blew himself up with a grenade to avoid arrest, police said.

The death of Abdullah Mehsud is a boost for President Musharraf, who faces growing American pressure to crack down on Islamic fighters battling security forces on both sides of the Afghan border. Intelligence agents cornered Mehsud overnight at the home of an Islamist politician in Zhob, police said. The town is 160 miles from the southwestern city of Quetta.

"My information is that Abdullah Mehsud killed himself," Zhob Police Chief Atta Mohammed told the Associated Press. "Thanks be to God that only he was blown up and our men were safe."

Federal Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema confirmed Mehsud's death, but provided no details.

American-allied Afghan forces captured Mehsud, who earlier lost a leg fighting for the Taliban, in northern Afghanistan in December 2001. He was held at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and it remains unclear why he was released in March 2004.