PESHAWAR, Pakistan: The Pakistani Taleban has set up a page on Facebook to recruit enthusiasts to write for a quarterly magazine and to edit video, a spokesman confirmed yesterday.
The Umar Media TTP page, which has more than 270 likes, appears to have been created in September and has just a handful of messages written in English.
Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan confirmed to AFP by telephone yesterday that the faction was “temporarily” using the page “to fulfill its requirements” before launching its own website.
US-based organization SITE Intelligence Group says the TTP uses Facebook as “a recruitment center”.
“Through its official media arm, Umar Media, the TTP has taken to Facebook to recruit contributors for their media work,” it said in a statement.
Last month, the TTP claimed responsibility for planting a bomb under the car of a prominent Pakistani journalist and TV anchorman, Hamid Mir.
Mir had been criticized by the Taleban after the faction claimed responsibility for shooting teenage activist Malala Yousafzai in October.
Pakistani Taleban using Facebook for recruitment
