Some of the Taliban militants behind last month’s massacre of more than 130 schoolboys in Pakistan have been arrested inside Afghanistan, in the latest sign of sharply improved counter-terror cooperation between the two countries.

Five Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters were captured on Monday inside Afghanistan, according to an official from Afghanistan’s national directorate of security.

On the other side of the border, a Pakistani army official said three of the men were believed to have been involved in the 16 December attack by a team TTP suicide gunmen on the army public school in the north-western city of Peshawar.



The killings horrified the public and prompted Pakistan’s military and civilian leaders to vow to “eradicate” the terrorism that has plagued the country for years.

But with senior members of the TTP believed to be hiding in areas of eastern Afghanistan, the cooperation of Kabul is essential for achieving that goal.

Pakistan’s spy chief, Rizwan Akhtar, flew to Kabul on Sunday for only the latest of a series of top-level meetings between leaders of the two countries in recent months.

The relationship, which in the past has been marked by furious Afghan allegations that Pakistan was covertly backing its Taliban enemies, has warmed markedly since Ashraf Ghani was elected president last year.

Ghani’s young presidency has already seen agreements on freeing up trade, the joint management of the border and increased intelligence sharing – the arrests of the TTP in Afghanistan were based on information supplied by Pakistan.

Analysts say Ghani hopes that by showing willingness to help fight the TTP Pakistan will return the favour by using its influence to encourage the leaders of the Afghan Taliban, who are all based in Pakistani territory, to accept a negotiated end to the 13-year conflict.

Ghani has also attempted to allay concerns about Afghanistan’s relationship with India and other issues Pakistan has long been sensitive over, although so far Kabul appears to have received little in return.

Security officials did not divulge where exactly the men were arrested, although it is widely believed the TTP have found safe havens in Nuristan and Kunar, provinces in the mountainous and heavily forested borderland that US troops were never able to subdue but where Ghani has committed troops to fight the Pakistani militants.

A TTP fighter based in Afghanistan who was contacted by phone said seven members of the group were captured a little further down the border in Nangahar province on Monday.