A Pakistani militant from the Taliban who allegedly shot Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai threatened a second attempt in her life and said in a tweet that there would be no mistake next time.
ISLAMA BATH – A Pakistani Taliban militant who allegedly shot and severely wounded Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai made a second attempt in her life and tweeted that there would be a mistake next time. Twitter permanently suspended the account with the threatening post on Wednesday.
The threat prompted Yousafzai to tweet herself and asked both the Pakistani army and Prime Minister Imran Khan to explain how her alleged shooter, Ehsanullah Ehsan, escaped from government surveillance.
Ehsan was arrested in 2017 but escaped in January 2020 from a so-called safe 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 has been communicating with Pakistani journalists via the same Twitter account containing the Urdu language threat. He had more than one Twitter account, all of which were suspended.
The government is investigating the threat and immediately asked Twitter to close the account, said Raoof Hasan, an adviser to the prime minister.
Ehsan, a longtime member of the Pakistani Taliban or Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, as they are known, urged Yousafzai to “come back home because we have a score to settle with you and your father.” The tweet adds that ‘this time there will be no mistake. ‘
Yousafzai, who set up a fund that promotes education for girls worldwide and even funded a girls’ school in her home in the Swat Valley, called on the government and the army over Ehsan’s tweet.
‘It is the former spokesperson of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan who is claiming the attack on me and many innocent people. He is now threatening people on social media, “she tweeted.” How did he escape? “
Associated Press inquiries to the military are unanswered.
The charges against Ehsan include a horrific attack on the public school of a Pakistani army in 2014 in which 134 people were killed – mostly children, some as young as five years old.
He also claimed responsibility for the shooting of Yousafzai in Swat Valley in 2012. In the attack, the gunman walked up to Yousafzai on a school bus in which she was traveling, asked her by name and then fired three bullets. She was then only 15 years old and infuriated the Taliban with her campaign for girls’ education.
Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, a teacher, ran a school in Swat Valley for boys and girls. When the Pakistani Taliban took over the area in 2007, they forced girls out of schools and ruled with a cruel hand until 2009, when they were expelled by the Pakistani army.
During his years in military detention, Ehsan was never charged. Authorities also later never explained how he left the country and traveled to Turkey, where he apparently lives today.
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Associated Press author Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.