Mufti Haqqani was arrested after a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged under Section 16 of Maintenance of Public Ordinance (MPO) and Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act against the cleric.

FIR was lodged by Station House Officer SHO Wasim Sajjad at Pizo police station. The complainant in the report stated that Mufti Sardar Ali Haqqani delivered a highly incendiary speech at Speen Jumat, Wahid Ghari in Peshawar.

Wasim added in the report clip of the threatening speech was widely circulated on social media in which Haqqani could be seen standing on the stage and urging people to take the law into their own hands and carry out a suicide attack on the young activist.

The cleric also threatened to carry out a suicide attack on Malala if she were to visit Pakistan in his speech.

KP police, taking action on the FIR, arrested Haqqani on Tuesday night from a mosque in Pizo, District Police Officer Lakki Marwat Imran Khan told Aaj News.

The girl's education activist recently received harsh criticism from social media users as well as the political establishment over her remarks about marriage in a recent interview with Vogue. Her comments reached the KP Assembly last Friday with members of the opposition urging her family to clarify their position on the issue.

In the interview, when asked about her views on marriage, the 23-year-old Oxford graduate had responded that she is wary of the institution:

“I still don’t understand why people have to get married. If you want to have a person in your life, why do you have to sign marriage papers, why can’t it just be a partnership?”