KABUL - A former spokesman for the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has escaped from the custody of the military.
In an audio clip that has gone viral on social media, ex-spokesman for TTP Ehsanullah Ehsan has claimed fleeing the safe house where he was being kept.
Ehsan said he had fled Pakistan on January 11 and settled in Turkey along with his family -- wife and two children.
Pakistan’s defence and foreign ministers said they had learnt from media reports about Ehsan’s escape. They added they had no further information.
In the audio clip, Ehsan said the Pakistan army failed to honour some promises it had made under an agreement that led to his surrender.
In 2017, Ehsan claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. About 150 students and teachers had been killed in the assault.
Taken into custody in 2017, Ehsan said in the message. “I honored this (surrender) agreement for three years, but the Pakistani authorities violated it and kept me in a prison along with my children.
“On Jan. 11, 2020, with the help of Allah, I succeeded in escaping from custody,” he claimed, promising to release soon a detailed statement on the agreement...”
The ex-TTP spokesman had also claimed responsibility for attacks on Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, Peshawar airport and the killing of nine foreign tourists in Gilgit-Baltistan. (Pajhwok)