Malala Yousafzai undergoes successful surgery

Surgeons say they have successfully removed a bullet from the 14-year-old child activist.

Malala Yousafzai is reported to be in stable condition after Wednesday morning s operation in Peshawar, Dunya News reported. The teenaged children s rights activist was shot in the head on Tuesday as she headed home from school in Mingora. Last night, a doctor at CMH told AFP that the bullet had travelled from her head and then lodged in the back shoulder, near the neck. "She is in the intensive care unit and semi-conscious, although not on the ventilator," he told AFP on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media. The next three to four days would be crucial, he added. Pakistan International Airlines sources told that it had a Boeing 737 ready at Peshawar airport to fly Malala abroad if necessary, most probably to Dubai. "We are waiting for new orders and as soon as we get the instruction she will be flown abroad," PIA chief Junaid Yusuf said. Malala won international recognition for highlighting Taliban atrocities in Swat with a blog for the BBC three years ago, when the militants led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah burned girls schools and terrorised the valley. Her struggle resonated with tens of thousands of girls who were being denied an education by militants across northwest Pakistan, where the government has been fighting against insurgents since 2007. She received the first-ever national peace award from the Pakistani government last year, and was nominated for the International Children s Peace Prize by advocacy group KidsRights Foundation in 2011. TTP claimed the attack in a series of telephone calls to reporters and then issued a strongly-worded statement justifying the attack on a child on the grounds that Malala had preached secularism "and so-called enlightened moderation". The Taliban controlled much of Swat from 2007-2009 but were supposedly driven out by an army offensive in July 2009. "It s a clear command of sharia that any female, that by any means plays a role in war against the mujahedeen, should be killed," said spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan. He accused the media of pouring out "smelly propaganda" against the Taliban, saying that women had also been killed in Pakistan military operations and were detained by the intelligence services. The attack, in which two other girls were wounded, has been widely condemned and sparked a social media firestorm. Thousands of people around the world have sent the teenage campaigner messages of support via social media. Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf telephoned Malala s father to condemn the attack and promise that the government would pay for all medical treatment. President Asif Ali Zardari said the shooting would not shake Pakistan s resolve to fight militants or the government s determination to support women s education.