ISLAMABAD: A Taliban militant who nine years ago is claimed to have wounded Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai has threatened a second attempt on her life, tweeting that next time, “there would be no mistake.”
Ehsanullah Ehsan, a former spokesperson for Afghanistan-based Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), urged Yousafzai to “come back home because we have a score to settle with you and your father.”
The tweet added that “this time there will be no mistake.”
The threat prompted Yousafzai to tweet herself, asking both the military and Prime Minister Imran Khan to explain how her alleged shooter, Ehsanullah Ehsan, had escaped from government custody.
“This is the ex-spokesperson of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan who claims the attack on me and many innocent people. He is now threatening people on social media,” she said. “How did he escape?”
This is the ex-spokesperson of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan who claims responsibility for the attack on me and many innocent people. He is now threatening people on social media. How did he escape @OfficialDGISPR @ImranKhanPTI? https://t.co/1RDdZaxprs
— Malala (@Malala) February 16, 2021
Responding to Yousafzai, the prime minister’s focal person on digital media, Arslan Khalid, said the account was “fake”. He also informed her that Twitter and telecommunication authorities had been notified “as such miscreants using fake accounts and spreading hate shouldn’t be allowed on any social media platform”.
“There is zero tolerance for extremism in Pakistan,” Khalid said.
It’s a fake account @Malala and there is zero tolerance for extremism in Pakistan. Have forwarded this fake account to authorities and Twitter as such miscreants using fake accounts and spreading hate shouldn’t be allowed on any social media platformhttps://t.co/rKCrZF92IJ
— Dr Arslan Khalid (@arslankhalid_m) February 16, 2021
Ehsan was arrested in 2017 but escaped in January 2020 from a so-called safe house where he was being held by security agencies. The circumstances of both his arrest and escape have been shrouded in mystery and controversy.
Since his escape, Ehsan has been interviewed and has communicated with journalists, including those from Pakistan, via a Twitter account.
The Associated Press reported the militant has had more than one Twitter account, all of which have been suspended.
The government is investigating the threat and had immediately asked Twitter to shut down the account, said Rauf Hassan, an adviser to the prime minister.
The charges against Ehsan include the horrific 2014 attack on Army Public School in Peshawar that killed 134 — mostly children, some as young as five years old.
He also claimed responsibility for the 2012 shooting of Yousafzai in Swat Valley. In the attack, the gunman walked up to Yousafzai on a school bus in which she was travelling, asked for her by name and then fired three bullets. She was just 15 years old at the time and had enraged the Taliban with her campaign for girls education.
Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, a teacher, ran a school in Swat Valley for boys and girls. In 2007 when the Taliban took control of the area, they forced girls out of schools and ruled with a brutal hand until 2009, when they were driven out by the army.
During his years in custody, Ehsan was never charged. Authorities also later never explained how he left the country and traveled to Turkey, where he is believed to be living these days.
Twitter on Wednesday permanently suspended the account with the post. Pakistan Today was unable to verify if the account belonged to the militant.
