Cleric arrested for hurling suicide attack threat at Nobel laureate Malala

Mufti Sardar had said he would carry out suicide attack against Nobel Peace Prize laureate if she visits Pakistan

D I KHAN:

A cleric from Nowshera district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), who threatened the world's youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai with a suicide attack during a speech, has been arrested by Lakki Marwat police.

Complainant SHO Wasim Sajjad, in an FIR registered against the cleric at Pizo police station in Lakki Marwat, stated that Mufti Sardar Ali Haqqani delivered a speech at Speen Jumat, Wahid Ghari in Peshawar.

He said that the video of the speech was widely circulated on social media in which he could be seen standing armed on the stage and asking people to take the law into their own hands and carry out a suicide attack on Malala Yousafzai.

“He [the cleric] could be heard saying that he would carry out a suicide attack on Malala when she visits Pakistan. This highly enraged people,” read the FIR. Haqqani was booked under 16 MPO and 7ATA.

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Police officials told The Express Tribune that the cleric was present in Pizo when he was arrested Tuesday night and booked for inciting hatred.

They said that the cleric earlier probably escaped to his hometown Nowshera to avoid the arrest when the video went viral and was widely condemned.

The suspect had also previously mocked Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) in another video after which he was arrested by Nowshera police.

Later, the cleric released a video, asking people to follow the coronavirus SOPs.