Kabul: Former Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, who escaped from the custody of Pakistani security agencies in February this year, has complained to the top three international human rights organisations against the illegal arrest of his family members.
In a letter written to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and International Red Crescent, which was posted by him on Twitter, the former Taliban militant said that the Pakistan army has kidnapped members of his family and detained them in an unknown location for the past three months, without any regard for the laws.
Ehsanullah, held responsible for terror attacks on Malala Yousafzai and Peshawar Army Public school, had surrendered before Pakistan Army three years ago. But in February this year, he escaped from a safe house of the Pakistani security establishment.
In the letter to the international human rights groups, Ehsanullah introduced himself as Liaqat Ali and revealed that after he quit violence in 2017 and signed a peace treaty with the Pakistan Army, he was “given a guarantee that all resources would be used to support me to live a peaceful life but the promises made were unfortunately not kept.”
“I was imprisoned in a house with my family for three years until we were left with little option but to escape because of our uncertain future,” he said.
Following his departure, Ehsanullah said, the Pakistan Army attacked his father’s house in Mohmand district and abducted his father Sher Mohammad and brother Asad Shafiq.
Two of his brothers, Hashmat Khan and Shaukat Khan, were arrested from their shop in Chitral. In addition, the army kidnapped his uncle, cousin, brother-in-law and a friend from their homes, he said.
“They have all been detained in some prison for the past three months, but I do not know where they are being held,” the former militant said, adding that no case was filed against his father nor was he produced before any court. None of his relatives and friends, he said, had anything to do with any of his actions.
The former militant urged the three international organisations to use their positions as upholders of human rights to condemn these actions of the Pakistani state, make enquiries as to the whereabouts of his missing family members and ensure their swift release from detention.
