PESHAWAR, Pakistan, (AP) – Security officials say Pakistan has arrested a former Taliban spokesman released by Afghanistan in 2007 in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist.

An intelligence official says authorities detained Ustad Mohammed Yasir in Peshawar near the Afghan border.

He says Yasir was Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s spokesman after the regime’s fall in Afghanistan in 2001.

The official said Saturday that Pakistan first arrested Yasir in 2005 and sent him to Afghanistan, where he was released along with four other Taliban figures for journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

A Peshawar police official confirmed the arrest.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.