A Pakistani Taliban militant who allegedly shot Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai threatened with a second attempt on her life, saying in a tweet that next time, “there would be no mistake”.
ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani Taliban militant who, nine years ago, allegedly shot and seriously injured Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, threatened a second attempt on his life, tweeting that next time, “there would be no mistake”. Twitter on Wednesday permanently suspends the account with the threatening post.
The threat prompted Yousafzai to tweet herself, asking the Pakistani military and Prime Minister Imran Khan to explain how his alleged sniper, Ehsanullah Ehsan, escaped government custody.
Ehsan was arrested in 2017, but escaped in January 2020 from a secret house where he was being held by the Pakistani intelligence agency. The circumstances of his arrest and escape were shrouded in mystery and controversy.
Since his escape, Ehsan has been interviewed and communicated with Pakistani journalists through the same Twitter account that carried the threat of the Urdu language. He had more than one Twitter account, all of which were suspended.
The government is investigating the threat and has immediately asked Twitter to close the account, said Raoof Hasan, an aide to the prime minister.
Ehsan, a former Pakistani Taliban or Pakistani Tehrik-i-Taliban, as they are known, asked Yousafzai to “return home because we have an account to settle with you and your father”. The tweet added that “this time there will be no error.”
Yousafzai, who created a fund that promotes education for girls around the world and even funded a school for girls at his home in the Swat Valley, called the government and the military because of Ehsan’s tweet.
“This is the former spokesman for Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, who claims the attack on me and many innocents. He’s now threatening people on social media, “she tweeted.” How did he escape? “
The Associated Press’s questions to the military went unanswered.
The charges against Ehsan include a grisly attack in 2014 on a Pakistani army public school that killed 134 – mostly children, some as young as five years old.
He also took responsibility for the Yousafzai shooting in 2012 in the Swat Valley. In the attack, the sniper walked to Yousafzai on a school bus she was traveling on, asked for her name and then fired three shots. She was just 15 at the time and infuriated the Taliban with its campaign for girls’ education.
Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, a teacher, ran a school for boys and girls in Swat Valley. In 2007, when the Pakistani Taliban took control of the area, they expelled the girls from schools and ruled with a brutal hand until 2009, when they were expelled by the Pakistani military.
During his years in military custody, Ehsan was never charged. Later, the authorities also never explained how he left the country and traveled to Turkey, where he is believed to live today.
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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.