Muslim Khan مسلم خان | |
---|---|
Born | 1954 (age 69–70) Kabal, NWFP, Pakistan |
Allegiance | Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan |
Battles/wars | War in North-West Pakistan |
Muslim Khan (born 1954) is a captured Pakistani militant and former spokesman for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chapter based in Swat and became the chief spokesman of the Swat Taliban in 2007. [1]
Born in Kabal Tehsil, Swat, in 1954 Khan started out as a student activist of a left-wing secular party in the 1960s, but became a religious extremist in the early 1990s, becoming a part of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi's leadership in 1994. [2]
In an interview with New England Foundation for the Arts, when asked about his usage of American-styled English and pronunciation, he revealed that he had lived for some time in Boston, Massachusetts. [3] He had spent 4 years in the USA and worked as a painter in Boston. [4] The BBC reported that Khan spoke Pashto, Urdu, English, Arabic and Persian, and had lived in or travelled across more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, Europe, the US and Asia. [1]
In April 2009 he denounced any Pakistanis who disagreed with his interpretation of Islam calling them non-Muslims. [5] It was also revealed due to a telephone intercept that Khan had urged attacks on the families of soldiers. "Strikes should be carried out on their homes so their kids get killed and then they'll realise". [6] Before the start of the Army offensive against the Taliban, Khan claimed that his fighters controlled "more than 90 per cent" of Swat. [7]
After the 2009 operation in Swat he was still at large, vowing that his men will step up attacks. [8]
He was arrested on 10 September by the security forces of Pakistan [9] in the suburbs of Mingora. [10]
He was one of eight men sentenced to death by a military court on 28 December 2016 for terrorism and other offences. [11] [1] Khan's appeal before the Peshawar High Court was weakened following the Supreme Court's decision in Said Zaman Khan v. Federation of Pakistan. [12] His sentence was briefly stayed by the High Court on 24 May 2017, on the basis of a petition filed by his wife. [12]
I lived in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, a foreigner there.
In an earlier phone interview with CNN, he described how he had spent four years living in the United States, working as a painter in the Boston, Massachusetts, area.
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