Terrorist who shot Malala Yousafzai, escapes from Pakistan jail

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan, who was responsible for shooting Malala Yousafzai and carrying out the Peshawar Army school terror attack, has escaped from an Army jail in Pakistan.

In an audio recording released on Thursday and shared via an online private messaging platform, Ehsanullah claimed that he has succeeded in escaping from jail on January 11.

Ehsanullah, also spokesperson of another dreaded group Jamaat ul Abrar, is responsible for several terror attacks in Pakistan and carried a bounty of $1 million on his head.

In 2012, he shot Malala. She later went on to become the joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ehsanullah shot the then school girl, Malala, in the head for defying Taliban diktats and pursuing her education and highlighting atrocities of the militant outfit.

Ehsanullah is also a prime accused in the 2014 Army Public School (APS) Peshawar attack in which 134 school children and 15 staff members were killed.

He was also involved in the suicide bombing of Shiites in Rawalpindi and Karachi, killing nine foreign tourists and their guide in Gilgit-Baltistan area. Besides, the twin blasts targeting peace committee volunteers in Mohmand agency; suicide attack near the Wagah border and the 2016 bombing of an Easter gathering in a Lahore park that killed at least 75 people and injured more than 300.

In 2017, he surrendered before the Pakistan Army under “mysterious circumstances”.

Soon after his surrender, a Pakistani TV channel was allowed to interview Ehsan who at the time claimed that he was working for India’s external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).

However, after three years in custody, Pakistani Army was yet to file a charge sheet against him, sources in Islamabad said.

Sources in Islamabad confirmed that the audio clipping was Ehsanullah’s voice.

Speaking in Urdu, Ehsanullah claimed that he had followed law in the last three years but Pakistan’s dishonest and corrupt institutions had deceived him and his family. He said he had been forced to give statements, alluding to the TV news interview, under an agreement between him and Pakistani authorities but none of the promises were kept.

Ehsanullah said that he would soon expose all the officials who were involved in the conspiracy against him.-IANS news/AARTI TIKOO SINGH