Terrorist touts jihad as LinkedIn skill

A LinkedIn account allegedly belonging to a senior Taliban commander was deleted after it was used to recruit terrorists to the extremist group, the British Telegraph newspaper reported.

The profile for Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for Taliban splinter group TTP Jammat-ul-Ahrar, listed his skills as “jihad and journalism” and described him as “self employed” and working in “media production.”

By the time it was taken down, the account boasted 69 connections, an indication of the number people in one’s network, not dissimilar to a business contact. The profile listed details of his school, employment history and language skills as well as a photograph.

Ehsan is wanted by Pakistani authorities for his role in multiple terror attacks, including the attempted 2012 assassination of then-15-year-old human rights activist Malala Yousafzai, who was awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in documenting Taliban atrocities and campaigning for women’s rights.

The Taliban chief currently has a $1 million (NIS 3.96 million) bounty on his head.

After deleting Ehsan’s account, a LinkedIn spokesperson questioned its veracity, given that the IP address of the account, which points to where in the world it was set up, suggested it may have been fabricated.

“[I] can’t say for certain that it is someone else… But I can say that our security team has a high degree of confidence that it is a fake account, which is reason enough to restrict it,” The Telegraph was told.

After a stint as spokesman for Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — the Pakistan wing of the Taliban — Ehsan and his fellow commanders went on to found TTP Jammat-ul-Ahrar, a terror group that operates from tribal areas in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border zone.

TTP Jammat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for a number of attacks over the second half of 2014, including a November 2014 suicide bombing on the India-Pakistan border that killed over 60 people, according to local officials.