Peshawar: Families of the martyrs of Army Public School carnage have moved to the Peshawar High Court in Pakistan, seeking contempt of court proceedings against those responsible for the alleged escape of the former spokesperson of Pakistani Taliban from the custody of security forces. Ehsanullah was the spokesperson for the Jamaatul Ahrar faction of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorist group when the Mullah Fazlullah-led TTP carried out the most sickening rampage at the Army Public School in Peshawar in Dec 2014 massacring nearly 150 pupils and staff.

A writ petition moved by Advocate Fazal Khan, who lost his son Sahibzada Umer Khan in the attack and is the president of the APS Shuhada Forum, read that the respondents, which include the Pakistan’s civil and military leadership as well as the federal and provincial secretaries, had assured the court that Ehsanullah would be tried by a military court and not granted clemency, The Express Tribune reported.

“..now it has come to limelight, that far from trying the terrorist, Ehsanullah Ehsan was provided with the luxurious home from which the terrorist [conveniently] escaped,” said the petitioner in the application, adding that the claim has not been denied by the respondents.

Ehsanullah, who had voluntarily turned himself in to the intelligence agencies on Feb 5, 2017 – and remained in custody ever since, claimed credit for countless terrorist attacks on behalf of the TTP and Jamaatul Ahrar – among them the Wagah border bombing of 2014; the suicide attack on Christian community members celebrating Easter at a Lahore park in 2016; the killing of nine foreign tourists in Gilgit-Baltistan in 2013; and the shooting of girl education campaigner Malala Yousafzai in 2012.