1. 5 updates

Taliban sends letter to Malala

A senior Taliban commander in Pakistan has written a letter to Malala Yousafzai and said that the attack which saw her shot in the head was not due to her education campaigning but due to the "smear campaign" she ran against the Taliban.

Live updates

Brown: 'Nobody will believe a word the Taliban says'

Gordon Brown said "nobody will believe a word the Taliban says" about the right of girls like Malala Yousafzai to have an education "until they stop burning down schools and stop massacring pupils."

Following the Taliban commander's letter to Malala in which he accuses her of creating a smear campaign, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education said the Taliban are "on the defensive".

UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown. Credit: Reuters

Mr Brown said: "The Taliban are on the defensive because four million people, two million of them in Pakistan, have now signed petitions calling for every girl to have their education in safety.

"I will visit Pakistan in the next few weeks as we build on Malala Day. During my visit I will step up the pressure for action to ensure that the three to four million Pakistani girls now denied education have a chance to go to school by the end of 2015."

Advertisement

Taliban: Malala was attacked due to 'her propaganda'

It is amazing that you are shouting for education, you and the UN is pretending that as you were shot due to education, although this is not the reason, be honest, not the education but your propaganda was the issue and what you are doing now, you are using your tongue on the behest of the others and you must know that if the pen is mightier than the sword then tongue is sharper and the injury of sword can be hailed but the injury of the tongue never hails and in the wars tongue is more destructive than any weapon.

– Adnan Rasheed, Taliban commander

Taliban attacked Malala 'because of provocative writing'

A senior Taliban commander in Pakistan wrote a letter to Malala Yousafzai saying that the reason she was attacked was because her "provocative writings" and not because of her campaign for education.

In the letter Adnan Rasheed said:

When you were attacked it was shocking for me I wished it would never happened and I had advised you before.

Taliban attacked you, was it Islamically correct or wrong, or you were deserved to be killed or not, I will not go in this argument now, let’s we leave it to Allah All mighty, He is the best judge.

Here I want to advise you as I am already late, I wish I would have advised you in my prison time and this accident would never happened.

First of all please mind that Taliban never attacked you because of going to school or you were education lover, also please mind that Taliban or Mujahideen are not against the education of any men or women or girl.

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.

Taliban commander sends letter to Malala

A senior Taliban commander in Pakistan has written a letter to Malala Yousafzai and said that the attack which saw her shot in the head was not due to her education campaigning but due to the "smear campaign" she ran against the Taliban.

Malala Yousafzai spoke at the UN on her 16th birthday. Credit: Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-Fotopres/DPA/Press Association Images

Read more: Malala urges UN to campaign for free education for all

In the letter, Adnan Rasheed said that had he not been in hiding after escaping from prison at the time of the attack he would have tried to stop it from happening.

Back to top

Latest ITV News reports