After Malala, another girl claims threat from Taliban

Islamabad: Just days after a deadly attack on Pakistani teenage rights activist Malala Yusufzai, another schoolgirl from Swat has claimed that she is on the Taliban hit list for raising her voice against their atrocities. Hina Khan, who was a pioneer in raising her voice publicly against Taliban atrocities in the Malakand Valley, is now claiming to be on the Taliban's hit list, Dawn News reported.

What has been further worrisome for her family is that despite repeated requests for security, they claim no steps have been taken to provide protection to them after they fled from Swat and moved to Islamabad, the report said. The teenaged girl, a student of Class 11, had publicly denounced militants atrocities in 2009.

"I had left Swat with my family because the militants had threatened girls' education there but now I feel I would not be able to go to school in Islamabad as well after these renewed threats," Hina was quoted as saying. Hina held a press conference at the National Press Club in 2008 after her friends in Swat told her that the militants were becoming further intolerant towards girls seeking education and had started bombing schools as well.

Hina claims that she fears not being able to attend school even in Islamabad, since she was receiving threats warning her that she would be targeted or kidnapped. Hina's father Raitullah Khan told the daily that he was very worried about his family after his wife Farhat, a social worker, also started receiving threatening calls since August this year.

About the renewed threats and the family worries, Raituallah said, "A few days ago when I came out of my house I saw a red cross on my gate but I removed it assuming it might have been drawn by some kids, but the very next day it appeared again which really terrified me." The next day, he claimed, "we received a call that Hina will be next after Malala."

Malala, 15, was shot on a school bus in the former Taliban stronghold of the Swat valley last week as a punishment for campaigning for the right of girls to an education, in an attack which outraged the world. Malala was brought in an air ambulance to Birmingham on October 15 as specialists at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital are considered among the best in the world at treating the kind of injuries she has sustained.