that sooner or later I’d be attacked, but I never thought it would happen to my family," Gulalai Ismail said. She did not know if the gunmen were Taliban, Pakistan's security services, or criminals trying to kidnap her for ransom. “We cannot trust anyone,” she added. In an interview with the BBC, she said: Intimidation and detentions In November 2017, the head of a Pakistani youth parliament in Mardan, Hamza Khan, falsely accused Ismail of blasphemy, a charge which in Pakistan carried the death penalty, and urged his followers to kill her. The accuser was seemingly unhappy with her activism. Ismail denied the blasphemy allegation and in February 2018, she filed a legal case against the accuser, after which he was arrested by the police. In a statement, Ismail said: "I stand not only for myself – this legal move will give voice to other people in Pakistan who are falsely charged with blasphemy." Blaming the system of education in Pakistan, Ismail said, "it’s not the fault of Hamza Khan or his friends. The real perpetrator is the state that intentionally indoctrinates our children and youth in educational institutions." On 12 August 2018, she delivered a speech at the PTM public gathering in Swabi, which was organised by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1948 Babrra massacre. Ismail and 18 other PTM activists were charged with making "anti-state" and "anti-military" comments at the rally. In October 2018, when she returned from attending a Humanists UK conference in the United Kingdom, Ismail was detained by airport officials at Islamabad International Airport in Islamabad and her passport was withheld from her. After detention, she was released on bail. The airport officials said her name had been on the Exit Control List (ECL), barring her from leaving Pakistan. Her legal representative petitioned the Islamabad High Court to have her passport and travel documents returned to her and her name removed from the ECL on the grounds that it was a violation of basic human rights. It was revealed during proceedings that Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), had instructed the Federal Investigation Agency to place her name on the ECL. In November 2018, she was taken to ISI headquarters. "They told my father that if you do not make sure that your daughter is silenced, we are going to kill her," Gulalai Ismail said. On 14