ISLAMABAD – In a first, Pakistani officials break silence over mysteriousescape of the TTP spokesperson Ehsan Ullah Ehsan.
A leading member of the Pakistan Taliban has escaped custody more than twoyears after surrendering to authorities, a senior security official saidSunday.
The confirmation comes days after Ehsanullah Ehsan — the former spokesmanfor the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — released an audio messageclaiming he had escaped detention and was now in Turkey.
A senior security source told AFP Ehsan was “one of our major assets inidentifying and later tracking down militants”.
The source was unable to confirm claims that Ehsan was in Turkey, orprovide details of how he escaped.
Ehsan was infamous for issuing chilling claims following TTP attacks andhas been linked to some of the country´s most bloody attacks — includingthe bombing at a park in Lahore during Easter 2016, and the targeting ofeducation activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.
Ehsan surrendered to authorities in 2017 and later gave high-profileinterviews on Pakistani television, angering many in the country whobelieved he was being pampered by authorities after years of helping leadthe bloody insurgency.
Pakistani security officials argued, however, that he had supplied valuableintelligence in the fight against militants.
Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency for over adecade, with thousands of civilians and security personnel dying inextremist attacks, especially after the TTP began their campaign ofviolence in 2007.
Overall levels of extremist-linked violence have dropped dramatically lastyear, with 2019 seeing the fewest deaths since 2007 when TTP was formed.
Analysts have credited the fall to military offensives against the Talibanin the tribal areas of North Waziristan and Khyber where they wereheadquartered, as well as operations in the country’s largest city ofKarachi.
In 2018, the TTP was further degraded after a US strike in Afghanistankilled their leader, Maulana Fazlullah.