A security official described Ehsanullah as a ‘double agent’ who has been used time and again to create trust before the international community

After failing to draw the desired response from the United Nations General Assembly in regards to Kashmir, it is now expected that Pakistan’s ISI will deploy Ehsanullah Ehsan to show Indian security agencies in a bad light.

According to a report in The Week, Ehsanullah, the former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson, has been groomed by ISI to spin venom against the Pakistani Army. This is an attempt to build his credibility by having him make statements exposing Pakistan’s role as a sponsor of terror, says the report. This, the ISI hopes, will ensure that he is taken seriously when he later talks about the alleged role of India’s intelligence agencies in supporting militant groups in Pakistan.

In short, the ISI is crafting a narrative that shows the former TTP spokesperson speaking against both the Pakistani and Indian security agencies.

He had claimed responsibility for the 2010 attack on Malala Yousafzai. Ehsanullah was also involved in the 2014 Peshawar school massacre. An official, as per the report, said Ehsanullah’s recent triade against the Pakistani Army is also a ploy to attract international attention. The official points out that Islamabad first claimed that Ehsanullah had fled custody and escaped to Turkey, and then highlighted him as a terrorist. However, Indian intelligence agencies traced him to Islamabad which prompted Ehsanullah to go on Twitter and deny the claim, says the report.

He went public on August 13 with names of Pakistani Army officers who had allegedly facilitated his surrender. Ehsanullah claimed he was part of a death squad which was made up of terrorists from various outfits such as LeT and JeM.

The report quoted a security official describing Ehsanullah as a ‘double agent’ who has been used time and again to create trust before the international community by appearing anti-Pakistan. Back in 2017, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), had tweeted that Ehsanullah had exposed a hostile foreign agenda with designs to destabilize Pakistan. The Pakistani military then released a confessional video of Ehsanullah which showed him claiming that TTP was working with India’s external intelligence agency RAW in Afghanistan and Pakistan.