Malala's recent remarks about marriage caused a stir on social media in Pakistan and angered Islamists and clerics like Haqqani. File / Reuters

Pakistani police have arrested a cleric after a video of him went viral on social media, in which he threatens Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai over her recent comments about marriage, officials said on Thursday.

The cleric, Mufti Sardar Ali Haqqani, was arrested in Lakki Marwat, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Wednesday, said Waseem Sajjad, a local police chief.

In the video, the cleric threatens to target Malala with a suicide attack when she returns to Pakistan, allegedly because of her comments earlier this month to British Vogue magazine about marriage that he claims insulted Islam.

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At one point in the Vogue interview, Malala says: "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?”

The remark caused a stir on social media in Pakistan and angered Islamists and clerics like Haqqani. Under Islamic laws, couples cannot live together outside marriage.

Malala's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, defended her on Twitter, saying her remarks were taken out of context.

Malala, now 23, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for working to protect children from slavery, extremism, and child labor. She briefly visited Pakistan in 2018.

In February, Malala's 2012 attacker threatened a second attempt on her life, tweeting that next time, "there would be no mistake.” Twitter subsequently permanently suspend the account with the menacing post.

Associated Press