Taliban ‘regret’ over Malala attack

A prominent Pakistani Taliban commander has written a letter to a teenage girl shot in the head by the group, expressing regrets that he did not warn her before the assassination attempt that propelled her activism to the international stage.

The letter from Adnan Rasheed, however, didn’t apologise for the October attack that left Malala Yousafzai gravely wounded.

Rasheed, who has close relations with Taliban leaders, only said that he found the shooting “shocking” and wished it had not happened.

He said he would leave it up to God to decide whether the outspoken activist for girls’ education should have been targeted.

"You have said in your speech yesterday that pen is mightier than sword," Rasheed wrote in reference to Malala's speech on Friday at the United Nations, "so they attacked you for your sword not for your books or school."

Rasheed said the letter expressed his own opinion, not that of the militant group.

Malala was 15 when she and two of her friends were attacked on their way home from school in Pakistan’s north west Swat Valley. The assassination attempt sparked worldwide condemnation.

Malala celebrated her 16th birthday last week by giving a speech at the UN in New York, telling the body that the attack gave her new courage while demanding world leaders provide free education to all children.

Rasheed said the Taliban did not attack Malala because she was a proponent for girls’ education, but because she was critical of the militant group when it took over much of Swat in 2008 and 2009. That mirrors what some militants said at the time of the shooting.

Rasheed, who the Taliban broke out of prison last year, said the militants supported boys and girls going to school as long as they received an Islamic education and did not study what he called a “satanic or secular curriculum”. Malala wrote in a blog for the BBC at the time the Taliban controlled Swat about how many students moved out of the valley after the Taliban issued an edict banning girls from school.

The Taliban has kidnapped and shot other education activists like Malala and also have blown up hundreds of schools in Pakistan’s north west. The Pakistani army launched a large offensive against the Taliban in Swat in spring 2009 and drove out many of the militants, but they have continued periodic attacks.

Rasheed said the Taliban only blow up schools that Pakistani soldiers use as hideouts. Teachers and activists say this is only partly true. Some were targeted because they were used by the military, but many of the attacks were motivated by the Taliban’s opposition to girls’ education and schooling that does not follow their strict interpretation of Islam, the teachers and activists say.

Rasheed also justified recent attacks in Pakistan on health workers providing children with polio vaccinations, claiming the West is trying to sterilise Muslims. The Taliban has denied carrying out such attacks in the past.

The Taliban commander also criticised the UN honouring Malala as he said the world ignores civilians being killed in US drone attacks in Pakistan’s north west. The UN is conducting an investigation into allegations of civilian casualties from US drone attacks.

While not apologising for the attack, Rasheed offered Malala education advice, urging her to return to Pakistan to enrol in an Islamic school for women.

“Use your pen for Islam and plight of Muslim ummah (community) and reveal the conspiracy of tiny elite who want to enslave the whole humanity for their evil agendas in the name of new world order,” Rasheed wrote.

PA