Who is Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah Taliban
Mullah Fazlullah, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, first came to prominence in the 2000s with his fiery radio tirades against the Pakistani government, education and the polio vaccine. The 44-year-old is a passionate ideologue, a cleric implacably opposed to any rapprochement with the Pakistani state. He has appeared in numerous militant videos wielding knives and guns as soldiers are slaughtered in the background. Fazlullah claimed ultimate responsibility for ordering the shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai in 2012 and also said he was behind the killing of high-ranking army officer Maj-Gen Sanaullah Niazi in September 2013. Some US and Pakistani officials have also blamed Fazlullah for the Peshawar school attack in 2014 , which killed 141 people in north-east Pakistan. A BBC correspondent who met Fazlullah in 2009 in the Tirah Valley was struck by his intensity and his commitment to bringing Sharia law to Pakistan. Although a fighter, he viewed himself primarily ...