PrintFriendly.

com: Print web pages, create PDFs

http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=http://www.thefrontierpost.com/ar...

Exposing the mysteries of Malala

November 4, 2012

Posted on November 4, 2012

Jehan Sher Yusufzai
The broad daylight assassination attempt on Malala Yousafzai and her schoolmates was a
barbaric act and it has been widely condemned. Millions of people have prayed for the swift
and full recovery of Malala. The perpetrators of the cowardly attack are yet to be
apprehended.
The attack on the 14-year-old school girl has shocked humanity and the record coverage of
the heinous act has astonished the nation. The high-profile treatment given to the brave
girl has created new ideas and thoughts. One group of people says Malala was spreading
liberalism in Swat valley. Another school of thought says Malala was an agent of the CIA
and was secretly working for the agency. Some people say she was attacked because
Obama was her favourite leader. But, in my opinion, all these views are wrong and the
ground reality of the case is quite different.
Malala's father, Ziauddin Khan, is a staunch Yousafzai Pakhtoon and settled in Mingora city
since 2008. He is an educationist and owner and principal of the Khushal Public School and
College Mingora, Swat. Ziauddin Khan and his family members have been affiliated with the
Awami National Party (ANP), which is a rival of all Islamic parties in the country, especially
of Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaiat Ulema-e-Islam. The Maulvi Sufi Muhammad outfit, Tehreeke-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi, (TNSM), Malakand division, which, later, converted to
Swat Taliban, had developed a serious enmity with ANP. In the 2008 general election, ANP
swept Malakand division vote, owing to boycott of Islamic parties. TNSM, under the
supreme leadership of Maulvi Fazalullah, was commanding Mingora city and the adjacent
areas under the banner of Swat Taliban at that time. When the ANP government was
established in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, soon after the new setup, clashes erupted between
the workers of ANP and TNSM that claimed many lives. Taliban killed renowned politicians,
tribesmen and top officials during that hard time for Swat.
As earlier mentioned, Ziauddin Khan Yousafzai was an active member of the ANP at that
time and an open opponent of the Taliban. Taliban opposed women's education, also,
stricter parda (veil) rules were imposed and singing and dancing were strictly prohibited in
Mingora. Many artists, women teachers and anti-Taliban people were slaughtered by
Taliban.
In a situation like this, Malala had ignored Taliban's order and continued her schooling
during the scariest period in Swat's history. Later, she also appeared with the name of Gul
Makay in a BBC diary, a secret report on women's education during Taliban's rule in
Mingora. That terrible militants' rule could not last for long and the government soon
turned on the Taliban. The army launched operation Rah-e-Rast against Taliban in the
valley and crushed their network and took control of Swat in 2009.
With the Taliban suppressed, the BBC started publishing fake stories about Malala's
education process during that awful period. Later, other agencies also developed different
stories on the schoolgirl that made her a focal point in the eyes of Taliban.

1 of 4

11/4/2012 4:55 PM

PrintFriendly.com: Print web pages, create PDFs

http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=http://www.thefrontierpost.com/ar...

It was a pre-planned mission of the West against Malala Yousafzai. Her situation further
deteriorated when the US and its allied countries offered free treatment to the shot girl.
This and the in-depth coverage of the incident made the public furious because neither our
government nor the West had taken any casualties of the war so seriously as Malala.
The Swat Star was too young to understand the consequences of her interviews and she
was used by the selfish media for its hidden objectives. These stories and interviews
destroyed her life and she became an enemy of Taliban. We know what damage an
11-year-old girl and grade five students can cause to Taliban's mission in the region. The
only crime of the brave schoolgirl is her love for education and natural talent. It was the
BBC, the New York Times and the West's secret agenda that landed Malala and her family in
trouble. It was a plot that paved the way for other Pakhtoons to be destroyed in the future.
Some other apprehensions raised in people's minds are that the war on terror is a war
between Islam and the infidel. It is also said that it is a war that is being fought for
American hegemony in the region; others say the war on terror is being fought to spread
liberalism in the land. Some critics are of the view that the war on terror is meant to destroy
the Pakhtoons culture.
I read many articles on Malala's tragedy by local writers; all want to subjugate Taliban by
using a brutal force. Something important needs to be mentioned here. We have already
lost more than 45,000 people in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa but gained nothing. How many
children have lost their parents and how many women have became widows in this blind
war. The leaders, who want to launch operations, should visit the areas affected by army
operations since 2002.
Furthermore, those who have been raising slogans for Pakhtoons rights for a century, are
also accompanied by those who want to rout the Pakhtoons from the map of Pakistan.
Whenever Hoti Sahib and his close aide, Mian Iftikhar Hussain Shah, visit a terror-hit site in
Pakhtoonkhwa, their statements in front of the bereaved people are "we are ready for talks
with Taliban if they give up their subversive activities" and "Pakhtoons have rendered great
sacrifices for their motherland, if the militants continue their attacks then we will fight till
the end".
These are the views of the Pakhtoons leaders. But who will come forward to help the
disheartened community in this crucial time? We have been killing our own people for the
past 10 years but what have we got till now? It is a game launched by the US and its allies
to suppress Islam in our homeland. We have already seen the fate of Afghanistan and Iraq,
where millions of innocent Muslims were killed.
The Pakhtoon community suffered a heavy blow in the war and the world is a silent
spectator. But the super powers should beware of the Pakhtoons' ire.
Malala is a Pakhtoon girl; she will never compromise on her unique culture, but
unfortunately she was immature and used certain elements. Her 'faults' were affiliation with
the nationalist party and extreme eagerness for education.
The leaders, politicians and army high ups are urged to change their strategy towards
militancy because war and battles have never resolved disputes, and violence creates more
violence. We have been dragged into this volatile situation that has brought our country to
the brink of collapse. It is time for us to sit together and seek a political solution to the
problem instead of war.

2 of 4

11/4/2012 4:55 PM

PrintFriendly.com: Print web pages, create PDFs

http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=http://www.thefrontierpost.com/ar...

The broad daylight assassination attempt on Malala Yousafzai and her schoolmates was a
barbaric act and it has been widely condemned. Millions of people have prayed for the swift
and full recovery of Malala. The perpetrators of the cowardly attack are yet to be
apprehended.The attack on the 14-year-old school girl has shocked humanity and the
record coverage of the heinous act has astonished the nation. The high-profile treatment
given to the brave girl has created new ideas and thoughts. One group of people says
Malala was spreading liberalism in Swat valley. Another school of thought says Malala was
an agent of the CIA and was secretly working for the agency. Some people say she was
attacked because Obama was her favourite leader. But, in my opinion, all these views are
wrong and the ground reality of the case is quite different.Malala's father, Ziauddin Khan, is
a staunch Yousafzai Pakhtoon and settled in Mingora city since 2008. He is an educationist
and owner and principal of the Khushal Public School and College Mingora, Swat. Ziauddin
Khan and his family members have been affiliated with the Awami National Party (ANP),
which is a rival of all Islamic parties in the country, especially of Jamaat-e-Islami and
Jamaiat Ulema-e-Islam. The Maulvi Sufi Muhammad outfit, Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariate-Muhammadi, (TNSM), Malakand division, which, later, converted to Swat Taliban, had
developed a serious enmity with ANP. In the 2008 general election, ANP swept Malakand
division vote, owing to boycott of Islamic parties. TNSM, under the supreme leadership of
Maulvi Fazalullah, was commanding Mingora city and the adjacent areas under the banner
of Swat Taliban at that time. When the ANP government was established in Khyber
Pakhtoonkhwa, soon after the new setup, clashes erupted between the workers of ANP and
TNSM that claimed many lives. Taliban killed renowned politicians, tribesmen and top
officials during that hard time for Swat.As earlier mentioned, Ziauddin Khan Yousafzai was
an active member of the ANP at that time and an open opponent of the Taliban. Taliban
opposed women's education, also, stricter parda (veil) rules were imposed and singing and
dancing were strictly prohibited in Mingora. Many artists, women teachers and anti-Taliban
people were slaughtered by Taliban. In a situation like this, Malala had ignored Taliban's
order and continued her schooling during the scariest period in Swat's history. Later, she
also appeared with the name of Gul Makay in a BBC diary, a secret report on women's
education during Taliban's rule in Mingora. That terrible militants' rule could not last for
long and the government soon turned on the Taliban. The army launched operation
Rah-e-Rast against Taliban in the valley and crushed their network and took control of
Swat in 2009.With the Taliban suppressed, the BBC started publishing fake stories about
Malala's education process during that awful period. Later, other agencies also developed
different stories on the schoolgirl that made her a focal point in the eyes of Taliban. It was
a pre-planned mission of the West against Malala Yousafzai. Her situation further
deteriorated when the US and its allied countries offered free treatment to the shot girl.
This and the in-depth coverage of the incident made the public furious because neither our
government nor the West had taken any casualties of the war so seriously as Malala.The
Swat Star was too young to understand the consequences of her interviews and she was
used by the selfish media for its hidden objectives. These stories and interviews destroyed
her life and she became an enemy of Taliban. We know what damage an 11-year-old girl
and grade five students can cause to Taliban's mission in the region. The only crime of the
brave schoolgirl is her love for education and natural talent. It was the BBC, the New York
Times and the West's secret agenda that landed Malala and her family in trouble. It was a
plot that paved the way for other Pakhtoons to be destroyed in the future.Some other
apprehensions raised in people's minds are that the war on terror is a war between Islam
and the infidel. It is also said that it is a war that is being fought for American hegemony in
the region; others say the war on terror is being fought to spread liberalism in the land.
Some critics are of the view that the war on terror is meant to destroy the Pakhtoons
culture.I read many articles on Malala's tragedy by local writers; all want to subjugate

3 of 4

11/4/2012 4:55 PM

PrintFriendly.com: Print web pages, create PDFs

http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=http://www.thefrontierpost.com/ar...

Taliban by using a brutal force. Something important needs to be mentioned here. We have
already lost more than 45,000 people in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa but gained nothing. How
many children have lost their parents and how many women have became widows in this
blind war. The leaders, who want to launch operations, should visit the areas affected by
army operations since 2002.Furthermore, those who have been raising slogans for
Pakhtoons rights for a century, are also accompanied by those who want to rout the
Pakhtoons from the map of Pakistan. Whenever Hoti Sahib and his close aide, Mian Iftikhar
Hussain Shah, visit a terror-hit site in Pakhtoonkhwa, their statements in front of the
bereaved people are "we are ready for talks with Taliban if they give up their subversive
activities" and "Pakhtoons have rendered great sacrifices for their motherland, if the
militants continue their attacks then we will fight till the end".These are the views of the
Pakhtoons leaders. But who will come forward to help the disheartened community in this
crucial time? We have been killing our own people for the past 10 years but what have we
got till now? It is a game launched by the US and its allies to suppress Islam in our
homeland. We have already seen the fate of Afghanistan and Iraq, where millions of
innocent Muslims were killed. The Pakhtoon community suffered a heavy blow in the war
and the world is a silent spectator. But the super powers should beware of the Pakhtoons'
ire.Malala is a Pakhtoon girl; she will never compromise on her unique culture, but
unfortunately she was immature and used certain elements. Her 'faults' were affiliation with
the nationalist party and extreme eagerness for education.The leaders, politicians and army
high ups are urged to change their strategy towards militancy because war and battles have
never resolved disputes, and violence creates more violence. We have been dragged into
this volatile situation that has brought our country to the brink of collapse. It is time for us
to sit together and seek a political solution to the problem instead of war.

4 of 4

11/4/2012 4:55 PM