One-million-dollar bounty in Malala's attack
ISLAMABAD. October 16. KAZINFORM The Pakistani Interior Minister said Thursday that the plan to shoot Malala Yousafzai was hatched across Pakistan's border, in Afghanistan.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Rehman Malik implicated Pakistani Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah in Malala's death. Malik said Fazlullah fled to Afghanistan during a Pakistani offensive in its Swat region.
"Four people came from there," the interior minister told Amanpour. He also indicated that Pakistani authorities may have had previous knowledge of the planning of some type of attack. kazinform has learned from CNN.
"At that point of time we did not know exactly what there objectives were, and what type of action they were going to take, until they hit Malala."
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Malik said one of the men involved in the attack has been identified and "a few of his associates have been arrested." He also said the fiancé of one of the "terrorists" has been detained.
Malik also told Amanpour that a one million dollar bounty has been placed on the head of the spokesperson of Paksitani Talinban who claimed responsibility for Malala's attack, Ehsanullah Ehsan.
"The mindset which you have seen - an assassination attempt on Malala - shows the intent of the terrorists," Malik said.
"But let the world not forget we are fighting a war on our porous border," he said, echoing the blame that Pakistani officials continue to place on Afghanistan.
Malik would not say whether the Pakistani government will carry out an offensive immediately, but indicated it will make its move when the intelligence is right.
He said Pakistani authorities will first have take into account the people who would be displaced in the areas as a result.
"The world has to see in this way that there is no singular approach," Malik said. We do not have a singular approach towards the terrorists. We have to have a common approach against a common enemy, which we realize have failed so far."
Malala arrived Thursday at a British hospital that specializes in battlefield wounds.