TEMPO.CO, Islamabad - A Taliban commander wrote a letter to Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani young girl that was shot in the head for calling for education for all girls. In the letter, and through an appearance on YouTube, he explained why the Swat Valley teenager was shot and claimed to be regretful such incident had to have happened.
Writing with poor English, Adnan Rasheed said he was surprised by last October’s assassination attempt. Malala suffered from heavy injuries when a group of armed men with masks broke into her school bus on her way home.
The shooting sparked fury from all around the world and Malala was brought to England for treatment. Last week was the first time she spoke in front of the public by delivering a speech in an event organized by the United Nations to honor her.
The letter penned by Rasheed, who was once jailed over a plot to assassinate the President but was subsequently released in a mass jail break last year, tried to justify the shooting of the teenager. He claimed that it was not because she tried to promote the importance of education, but because she actively spoke against Taliban.
"Taliban believe that you were intentionally writing against them and running a smearing campaign to malign their efforts to establish Islamic system in Swat and your writings were provocative," he wrote.
In another part of the letter, he also paid attention to Malala’s UN speech. "You have said in your (UN) speech yesterday that a pen is mightier than a sword, so they attacked you for your sword not for your books or school." He added that he personally is not against education for girls, but is against the Western model of education that he deems is based on 'a satanic or secular' curriculum.
"There were thousands of girls who were going to school before and after the Taliban insurgency in Swat, would you explain why only you were on their hit list???,"he asked.
At the end of the letter he claimed that the wide-spread news of her being shot over her campaigns for education is 'dishonest'. "Not the education but your propaganda was the issue and what you are doing now."
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