Who is Fazlullah? The man who targeted Malala, mastermind behind Peshawar attack
Maulana Fazlullah, who also wanted Malala Yousafzai’s life, is responsible for the mayhem he unleashed on Tuesday, where 132 school children were massacred in Peshawar. It was his orders to have Malala shot in October 2012.
According to The Daily Beast, Fazlullah took charge after the U.S. successfully killed predecessor Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of al-Qaeda linked Movement of the Taliban Pakistan.
Fazlullah took over the TTP 13 months ago. Born in the Swat district in 1974, he emerged as a key militant leader in the early 2000s. Later, with the support of more than 4000 fighters, he established a parallel Islamist government in Swat that imposed Sharia across 59 villages in the district in 2007.
Fazlullah earned his nickname, Radio Mullah, after he used FM broadcasts to push his jihadist sermons. Among his preferred topics were “major sources of sin” such as music, TV and computers, as well as a government polio vaccination drive, which he claimed was a Western conspiracy to control the Muslim population.
When Malala was shot as she rode in the back of an open truck, Fazlullah spokesman had said, “Let this be a lesson. She was young, but she was promoting Western culture.”
Read: Malala Yousafzai 'heartbroken' by Pakistan school slayings
Malala in her autobiography, “I am Malala”, dedicated an entire chapter to him where “she recounts how he went on to institute a reign of terror, ordering countless deaths, including that of a woman shot for dancing, and of a man killed along with his father because he refused to wear his shalwar above his ankles in the Taliban way.”
Malala added that “sometimes his voice was reasonable, like when adults are trying to persuade you to do something you don’t want to do,” but at other times “it was scary and full of fire.”
Read: Taliban attack on Peshwar army school a revenge for Malala Yousafzai's Noble Prize?
Off air, Fazlullah is a ‘romantic’ figure. “They praised Fazlullah and talked about his long hair, the way he rode a horse and behaved like the Prophet,” Malala wrote. “Women would tell him their dreams and he would pray for them.”
About women’s place in society, Fazlullah made himself. Malala in her book wrote, “Sometimes, he’d say, ‘Men, go outside now, I am talking to the women.’ Then, he’d say, ‘Women are meant to fulfill their responsibilities in the home. Only in emergencies can they go outside, but they must wear their veil.’”
