PESHAWAR: A Pakistani Taliban letter to Malala Yousafzai, the teenage education activist shot by the militants, was a bid to strike back in the publicity stakes following her speech at the UN, analysts said yesterday.
Adnan Rasheed, senior Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander, wrote an open letter to Malala accusing her of “smearing” them and promoting “satanic” values and urged her to return home.
The 16-year-old, shot in the head by TTP gunmen in her home town in Swat last October after she had campaigned for the right of girls to go to school, hit the headlines again last week with her powerful speech at the UN in New York.
In what was her first public appearance since the near-fatal attack last October, she vowed to continue her struggle for education and not be silenced by the militants.
Saifullah Khan Mehsud, Executive Director of the FATA Research Centre in Islamabad, said the TTP were not concerned about their image but wanted to make a statement after Malala’s speech made waves around the world. “Taliban have written this letter to counter the recent move of the West honouring Malala. “It is a move to convey to the world that Malala was not attacked because of girls’ education, but because of her propaganda against them.”
The letter’s claims that Malala was shot for smearing the Taliban echoed the explanation the militants gave when they claimed responsibility for shooting Malala.
“She always speaks against us. We will target anyone who speaks against the Taliban,” a TTP spokesman said in October.
“Basically it is a propaganda gimmick to appear good by saying we are not against education,” analyst and author Imtiaz Gul said. “They are trying to rub off the perception about Taliban that they are anti- women’s education.”
Rasheed accused Malala of seeking to promote an education system begun by British colonialists to produce “Asians in blood but English in taste”, and said students should study Islam and not the “satanic or secular curriculum”. “I advise you to come back home, adopt the Islamic and Pashtun culture, join any madrassa near your home town, study and learn the book of Allah, use your pen for Islam and plight of Muslim ummah (community),” Rasheed wrote. AFP
