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India-Pakistan
Taliban's Fazlullah threatens to kill Malala's father
2012-10-13
[Dawn] A front man for the Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
Taliban has threatened to kill 14-year-old schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai's father after a failed attempt
Curses! Foiled again!
to assassinate his daughter, said a report by Rooters.

Sirajuddin Ahmad, a front man for "Radio Mullah" Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullahs Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
's Swat Taliban which previously had control over the Swat region, told Rooters that two killers from Fazlullah's special hit squad had been sent to target the young schoolgirl.

The Swat Taliban militia, known to work under the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) umbrella, has a force of around 100 men specialised in assassination, fighters said. They chose two men, aged between 20 to 30, who were locals from Swat Valley, Rooters quoted the fighters as saying.

"We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she would not stop (speaking against us)," said front man Sirajuddin Ahmad, now based in Afghanistan's Kunar province
... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
Ahmed said the Taliban held a meeting a few months ago at which they unanimously agreed to kill her. The task was then given to military commanders to carry out.

In another report, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named quoted the front man as saying that the meeting of the Taliban leadership was held two months ago.

AP further quotes Sirajuddin Ahmed as saying that Malala Yousufzai was warned three times to stop her activities promoting "Western thinking," but she did not. The last warning was conveyed a week ago, Ahmed told an AP news hound.

A military offensive had pushed Fazlullah out of Swat in 2009, but his men had melted away across the border to Afghanistan.

Earlier this year, Fazlullah's men kidnapped and beheaded 17 Pak soldiers in one of several cross border raids.

"Before the attack, the two fighters personally collected information about Malala's route to school, timing, the vehicle she used and her security," Rooters quoted Ahmed as saying.

They decided to shoot her near a military checkpoint to make the point they could strike anywhere, he said.

On Tuesday, the two men stopped the bus she was riding home in. They asked for Yousufzai by name. Although the frightened girls said she wasn't there, the men fired at her and also hit two other girls in the van. One of them remains at death's door.

Now that they had failed to kill Yousufzai, they would target her father, Ahmad told Rooters.

Ziauddin Yousufzai, the headmaster of a girls' school, is on their hit list for speaking against them, his activities to promote peace in the region and for encouraging his daughter.

"We have a clear-cut stance. Anyone who takes side with the government against us will have to die at our hands," Ahmad warned. "You will see. Other important people will soon become victims."

Earlier, TTP central front man Ehsanullah Ehsan had already grabbed credit for the liquidation attempt on the young schoolgirl. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
it is unclear why the Swat Taliban front man Sirajuddin Ahmad has come out with this statement after an earlier statement by the TTP central front man.
Posted by:Fred

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