MUZAFFARGARH, Dec 10: The day when Malala Yousufzai’s father was appointed as Special UN Adviser on Global Education in France on Monday, the father of Shazia, another Taliban shooting victim, was planning to leave Swat and settle in Muzaffagarh, his native town, to avoid the backlash of militants.

UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown announced the appointment of Malala’s father Ziauddin Yousufzai as special UN adviser on Global Education and he will assist the work of getting every child to school by the end of 2015.

Shazia along with Kainat was shot at and injured in Swat by Taliban militants in October this year. Taliban, who took responsibility for the attack, said they had targeted Malala for campaigning for girls education. Muhammad Ramzan, the father of Shazia, said he was happy that Malala’s father was called to the France conference but the management should have also called Shazia to the conference.

Shazia has been in hospital for two months and now she has been going to school in Swat for the last four days.

Ramzan said he planned to settle in Muzaffargarh for security reasons, adding that he had been living in Swat for 20 years and was running sweet shops.

He said four days ago Malala contacted Shazia and inquired after her health.

He said although the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had offered him security, two weeks ago a bomb exploded near their home in Swat which was a warning to them.

Ramzan said the bomb blast had panicked him and the family and he had decided to move to Muzaffargarh.

He said Interior Minister Rehman Malik had met his daughter and gave Rs100,000 cheque to them while the army had also given Rs100,000 to them.

He claimed that the family of Kainat was also planning to shift to some other city.