[Dawn] A Pak Taliban capo has written a letter to Malala Yousafzai, the teenage girl activist shot in the head by the group, saying he wished he could have advised her against criticising the banned outfit so she wouldn't be attacked.The commander, Adnan Rashid, however did not apologise for the unsuccessful liquidation attempt, but only he found it ''shocking'' and wished it hadn't happened.
Rashid, who is known to have has close relations with top Taliban leaders, said the letter expressed his own opinion, not that of the bully boy group.
Adnan Rashid was the prime convict in an attack on former president Gen (retd) Pervez
PervMusharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
and was freed by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) fighters during the Bannu Jail break last year.
A former junior technician of Pakistain Air Force, Rashid was a resident of Chota Lahor area of Swabi district. He is fluent in English, Pashto and Urdu. He used to contribute to several social networking sites including Blogs and Facebook from the prison. He had joined PAF in 1997. He was around 24 when he was enjugged
You have the right to remain silent...
in early 2004.
Gunmen from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain shot Malala, now 16, in the head last October in her northwestern hometown of Swat, where she campaigned for the rights of girls to go to school.
The attack on Malala, who was 15 years old at the time, had sparked widespread international condemnation of the bully boy group.
| He accused Malala of seeking to promote an education system begun by the British colonialists to produce "Asians in blood but English in taste" and said students should study Islam and not what he called "satanic or secular curriculum." |
In the open letter released Wednesday, Rashid said he personally wished the attack had not happened, but accused her of running a "smearing campaign" against the bully boys.
"It is amazing that you are shouting for education, you and the UNO (UN) is pretending that you were shot due to education, although this is not the reason ... not the education but your propaganda was the issue," Rashid wrote.
"What you are doing now, you are using your tongue on the behest of the others."
He accused Malala of seeking to promote an education system begun by the British colonialists to produce "Asians in blood but English in taste" and said students should study Islam and not what he called "satanic or secular curriculum."
"I advise you to come back home, adopt the Islamic and Pashtun culture, join any female Islamic madrassa near your home town, study and learn the book of Allah, use your pen for Islam and plight of Moslem ummah (community)," Rashid wrote.