Ex-TTP spokesperson, Ehsanullah Ehsan, had fled from a Pakistan army safe house in Peshawar in January 2020.
New Delhi: Two senior army officers of the Pakistan army, including one colonel and one major, and 10 other subordinate ranks are facing military trial for their involvement in the escape of former Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) spokesperson, Ehsanullah Ehsan, who had fled from a Pakistan army safe house in Peshawar in January 2020.
The details of the trial have not been made public by the Pakistan army to avoid international embarrassment as Ehsan, who had surrendered to the army in April 2017, was declared as a prize catch and presented as an agent of Indian agencies by GHQ, Rawalpindi.
After the initial phase of denying that he had escaped from their custody, the Pakistan army later told the media that he had escaped during a counter-terror operation. The news of his escape was first broken on 18 January 2020 by this newspaper (Pak Taliban leader Ehsanullah Ehsan ‘flees’ from safe house).
However, Ehsan himself and other independent Pakistan-based sources confirmed to The Sunday Guardian that he had fled from his safe house along with his family members from Peshawar city in the middle of the night by booking a taxi on the night of 12 January 2020.
The Colonel, who has been held responsible for helping Ehsan, is of Punjabi ethnicity, while the Major is a Pathan.
Sources said that the Pakistan army is now desperately looking at options to recapture Ehsan again and represent him as an instrument of “foreign agencies” in front of the international media by using the anti-Pakistan army statements and articles that he has written—detailing the internal details of the bonhomie between the Haqqani group and the Pakistan army—after his escape, to substantiate their claim that Ehsan was working on the payrolls of foreign agencies after escaping.
Last month, on 24 February, Major General Babar Iftikhar, spokesman for Pakistan’s Armed Forces, had told the media that a number of Pakistani military personnel have been penalized for “negligence” over the escape of Ehsan. “All those responsible for it were tried and penalized,” Major General Babar Iftikhar, spokesman for Pakistan’s Armed Forces, had said without giving details, including the number or identity of who were prosecuted.