Taliban commander regrets attack on Malala

Taliban leader, Adnan Rashid earlier convicted of trying to assassinate former president Pervez Musharraf, wrote to Malala Yousufzai advising her to return and join a religious school for women in Swat. He regretted the last year attack on Malala but did not say it was wrong.

Rashid was also one of the many inmates who escaped from Bannu jail in April last year.

He wrote to Malala a day after her address at the United Nations General Assembly, criticizing her speech in his two-page letter written in English.

Rashid said that he had written to Malala in his personal capacity and not as a member of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or any other group.

“I advise you to come back, adopt the Islamic and Pushtoon culture, join any of the female Islamic madrassas near your home town, study and learn the book of Allah, use your pen for Islam to bring the plight of Muslim ummah to light and to reveal the conspiracy of the tiny elite who want to enslave humanity for their own evil agendas in the name of new world order,” he wrote.

Rashid has featured regularly in videos released by the Taliban and in a recent video he was seen training Taliban fighters to attack Musharraf, before openly threatening him on camera.

He rejected Malala’s assertion that she was targeted by the Taliban and claimed that he was shocked when the attack happened.

Malala, along with her friends was shot at point-blank range when her school van traveled through Swat last year.

“When you were attacked, it was shocking for me. I wish it [the attack] would never have happened,” Rashid wrote.

“First of all, the Taliban never attacked you because of going to school or because of the fact that you were an education lover. The Taliban or Mujahideen are not against the education of any man or woman,” Rashid wrote to Malala.

“Taliban believed that you were intentionally writing against them and running a smearing campaign to malign their efforts to establish an Islamic system in Swat. Your writings were provocative,” he continued.

Claiming that Malala wasn’t attacked because of her cause of education, he said “thousands of girls had been to school and college before the Taliban insurgency in Swat, would you explain why you were the only one on the hit list?”

Rashid said that Taliban were not the only ones blowing up schools but the Pakistan Army and Froniter Constabulary was as much to blame for it.

He said that the schools were being blown up so they can be used as hideouts and transit camps.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Jul 17 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.