Taliban’s Ehsanullah Ehsan used LinkedIn to boost his career

Ehsanullah Ehsan listed job on LinkedIn as terror group spokesman
Online profile offered information including education and employment
Account was removed by internet company, which said it could be fake

Stephanie Linning for MailOnline

Published:
01:51 GMT, 4 January 2015

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Updated:
17:09 GMT, 4 January 2015

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Profile: Ehsanullah Ehsan, pictured, listed his profession as a spokesman for the TTP Jamaat Ahrar – a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban

A senior terror commander used a business networking site to advertise his twisted set of skills, it has been reported.

Ehsanullah Ehsan listed his profession on LinkedIn as a spokesman for the TTP Jamaat Ahrar – a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban.

He described himself as ‘self-employed’ and listed his skills as ‘jihad and journalism’. He also provided details on his education, employment history and language skills.

The account was taken down by the company on Friday after it was approached by reporters from The Sunday Telegraph, who saw Ehsan’s claims.

Ehsan formed Jamaat Ahrar along with former commanders of the the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the Pakistan wing of the Taliban. The group declared their separation in August 2014.

The newly-formed terror group was blamed for the devastating suicide bombing on the Attari-Wagah border in Pakistan last November that left at least 61 dead.

Days after the attack, Ehsan issued a series of tweets, including one that identified the bomber and another that threatened India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He had his Twitter account suspended after the incident, but now operates using a different name.

A £650,000 bounty was placed on the terrorist’s head in 2012 after he boasted that the group was responsible for the attempted assassination of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai.

A spokesman for the TTP told Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune at the time that Malala was shot because she was a ’secular-minded lady’.

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Ehsan later tweeted that the teenager would not be safe if she survived the attack.

A spokesman for LinkedIn told the Sunday Telegraph that the company’s security team had decided to ‘restrict’ the account – meaning it was no longer in operation.

Responsible: Ehsan had a £650,000 bounty put on his head in 2012 when he boasted the Pakistani Taliban was behind the assassination attempt on Malala Yousufzai. Above, the teenager recovering in hospital

But she said that there was suspicion that it was a fake account, pointing to the ‘lack of Taliban recruiting messages’.

She added: ‘Our security team has a high degree of confidence that it is a fake account, which is reason enough to restrict it.’

The revelation comes a day after it emerged internet companies are refusing to pass on potentially critical evidence to GCHQ on serious criminals because they do not meet their criteria for causing enough harm.