Mullah Fazlullah named new chief for Pakistan Taliban

Mullah Fazlullah is named the new chief of Pakistani Taliban, after the incumbent Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a drone strike on November 2, 2013. Mullah Fazlullah is believed to be in his mid to late 30s. The new head of the Pakistani Taliban has ruled out peace talks with the government, vowing revenge for his predecessor's death and said to target the military and the governing party. Mullah Fazlullah is a particularly ruthless commander whose men shot the schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai. He led a brutal campaign in Swat between 2008 and 2009, enforcing hard-line Islamic law that included burning schools, and public floggings and beheadings. He was accused of being behind a roadside bomb in September that killed Major General Sanaullah Niazi, the top commander in Swat, along with two other military personnel. Mullah Fazlullah was known for his radio broadcasts calling for strict Islamic laws and earning him the nickname "Mullah Radio". Malala Yousafzai: Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani school pupil and education activist from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She is known for her activism for rights to education and for women, especially in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. In early 2009, at the age of 11–12, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls. The following summer, a New York Times documentary was filmed about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region, culminating in the Second Battle of Swat. On 9 October 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. Yousafzai rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by South African activist Desmond Tutu. On 12 October, a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwa against those who tried to kill her, but the Taliban reiterated its intent to kill Yousafzai and her father. Drone Strike or Drone Attacks: An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), also known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot on board. Its flight is controlled either autonomously by computers in the vehicle or under the remote control of a pilot on the ground or in another vehicle. The typical launch and recovery method or "Pop and Stop" of an unmanned aircraft is by the function of an automatic system or an external operator on the ground. The United States government has made hundreds of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004, using drones controlled by the American Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division. Most of these attacks are on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Northwest Pakistan. These strikes were begun by President George W. Bush and have increased substantially under President Barack Obama. Some media refer to the series of attacks as a "drone war".

What: Mullah Fazlullah named new chief for Pakistan Taliban When: November 7, 2013 Where: Northwest Pakistan