TALIBAN EXECUTE KEY OPPOSITION LEADER

the official said Haq, a former mujahedeen commander who was reportedly on a peace mission in Afghanistan, had two satellite phones and U.S. currency on him when he was arrested.
According to an independent, non-Taliban source in Pakistan, the Taliban convicted Haq and two associates of spying for the United States, after a brief trial Friday afternoon. After their sentences were read, all three were executed.
The Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman said Haq´s nephew and another anti-Taliban commander, Haji Dawran, were the other men executed.
A former US government official who helped Haq arrange and finance his return to Afghanistan said Haq´s trip was coordinated with US intelligence agencies as part of the effort to improve the fighting capabilities and coordination of opposition forces, and to try to persuade some Taliban forces to lay down their arms or defect to the opposition.
But an adviser to the exiled Afghan king in Italy said Haq was in Afghanistan "to implement the peace and the steps we created here in Rome for a peace mission in Afghanistan.
"We knew that his mission was a peace mission, he did not go to Afghanistan to fight," said Abdul Sattar Sirat, an adviser to exiled Afghan King Mohammed Zahir Shah. "He was part of His Majesty the King´s peace proposal and he went there to contact with the tribal leaders."
Sirat said the exiled king, who lives in Rome, was "shocked" at the news of Haq´s arrest, which he received from contacts in Peshawar.
The Taliban have warned that anyone showing support for the former king could face death.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported that U.S. helicopters attacked Taliban troops attempting to arrest Haq. That report could not be confirmed. Haq´s brother, Hajid bin Mohammad, told reporters Friday that his brother "had no arms and he was not prepared for any battle" when he and the six or seven others he was travelling with were "attacked by the Taliban without any provocation." A source said one of Haq´s business associates also was arrested.
In a recent interview with CNN´s Rebecca MacKinnon, Haq said he was not interested in fighting the Taliban, but he was trying to build a political coalition to bring down the regime.He also said he did not support U.S. ground troops in Afghanistan.
Haq, an ethnic Pashtun, was one of several key mujahedeen commanders during the Afghan war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s and was wounded several times. He split with the Taliban, who are predominately Pashtun, in the early 1990s and went into exile.In 1999, after his decision to oppose the Taliban, his wife, 11-year-old son and a bodyguard were murdered in Peshawar.