Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban terrorists for openly speaking and campaigning about the right to education for every girl child. Two years after the attack a senior member of the militant group said he wished the attack had not happened. Adnan Rasheed said the Taliban fighters believed Malala had been “running a smear campaign” against them before she was shot and thought her writings were “provocative”, he explained in an extraordinary open letter sent to the teenager.
Although he does not agree the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Malala was wrong, he says he found it “shocking” and wished it did not happen. Malala was promoting “Western thinking” and compulsory education for girls is opposed by Taliban in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan and this was their reason for trying to assassinate the 14-year-old girl.
