Malala Yousufzai: Girl's courage, Taliban's cowardice

By

Frida Ghitis, Special to CNN

Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer and correspondent, she is the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television." Follow her on Twitter: @FridaGColumns.

Just days before the Nobel committee announces the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the world found out who stands at the opposite extreme on the quest for peace and justice. We have discovered who the biggest cowards on the planet are today. The competition for the mark of shame is hard fought, but the title goes to the men who approached a van carrying girls home from school in Pakistan on Tuesday and asked for one very special 14-year-old. Then shot her in the head. The world's worst cowards are the members of the Pakistani Taliban. Perhaps they believe their thick dark beards, dangerous weapons and fanatical religious pronouncement make them fierce warriors. But their actions tell the true story: The Pakistani Taliban are terrified of a 14-year-old girl named Malala Yousufzai. And why are they so afraid of Malala? Mostly, because she is not afraid of them.And because Malala is a relentless advocate of education for girls, something the Taliban find very threatening. The Taliban, with all their bravado, seem to fear women most of all.The cravenness that has come to define the group -- also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP -- is easily matched by Malala's stunning bravery. The fearless activist for girls' education now lies in a hospital bed trying to recover from serious injuries to her head and neck. Overnight doctors performed emergency surgery to remove a bullet near her spinal cord and to relieve swelling in her brain. Malala knew she was on a TTP hit list, but she did not back down. The Taliban, whose religious, social and political views are founded on a brutally anti-woman ideology, cannot countenance even a young girl challenging their ideas on a blog. Shortly after Tuesday's assassination attempt, which also left two of Malala's school friends wounded, TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan acknowledged the group tried to kill her and vowed they will try to do it again if she survives. As is common, he couched the threats in extreme interpretations of Islam and on repression and intimidation of women. "Any female that, by any means, plays a role in the war against the mujahedeen," Ehsan declared, "should be killed." The TTP spokesman called Malala's advocacy for education "a new chapter of obscenity," adding, "We have to finish this chapter." He also accused her of being pro-West and admiring President Barack Obama. Malala started to become a problem for the TTP when she was just 11. The Pakistani Taliban, who hold the same ideology but are not directly affiliated with the Afghan Taliban, had taken over Pakistan's Swat Valley. Pakistani politicians were turning a blind eye to what had become an increasingly brutal regime. They executed their critics, ordered all men to grow beards and whipped women in public as punishment for real, imagined or fabricated offenses. It was all about imposing their will, their version of Islamic law, and subjugating the entire population, but women in particular. The Taliban reportedly had destroyed more than 200 schools and ordered all girls' schools shut down when Malala slowly emerged from obscurity. In 2009, she started writing a blog for the BBC under a pseudonym, talking about her dreams for the future and how the Taliban were pushing those aspirations further and further out of reach. Her story helped bring attention to the disaster befalling the population of the storied Swat Valley. At about the same time, the videotaped beating of a 17-year-old girl by a group of Taliban went viral in Pakistan, adding chilling images to a girl's lament. Until then, Pakistan had treated the fight against the Taliban as an American problem, something going on across the border in Afghanistan. Malala helped Pakistanis realize their own country, their own way of life were threatened by the TTP. The government fought back and regained control of the region. She continued to speak out and was the first recipient of her country's National Peace Award last year. She and her cause became celebrated throughout the country, and increasingly despised by extremists and their supporters. Rural areas of Pakistan and the districts near the Afghanistan border include deeply traditional regions from where the Taliban took much of their social views. Many practices, particularly regarding women, are horrifying to more modern Pakistanis living in places such as the capital, Islamabad. The country has become a dangerous incubator of fanatically enforced prejudice. A prominent politician who opposed Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws was killed last year. Just last month a Christian girl was sent to prison after her neighbors concocted blasphemy charges against her. The country has become one of the front lines of the struggle between modernity and the deeply intolerant, misogynistic practices dating back centuries. Malala, despite her young age, stands at the battle line of the push for equality. The rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 showed just how the outcome in Pakistan could affect everyone, but especially women's lives. The TTP aims to impose precisely the kind of rules the Taliban forced on Afghans. Afghan women were barred from working, studying, leaving their homes without a male companion. Even laughing out loud was prohibited. They became nonentities, stoned and beheaded at the local stadium, banned from showing their faces, speaking their voices or earning a living. In 2002, just after the regime was toppled, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of mental health in the country found a vast majority of Afghan women suffering from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. A decade later, in bordering Pakistan, in the aftermath of the assassination attempt against Malala, many question if the threat has receded to the extent the authorities claim. By trying to kill a bright and admired young girl in cold blood, the Taliban have revealed not only their own moral makeup. They have also reawakened the Pakistani people to the threat posed by extremists and the choices the country faces. Pakistanis are pressuring their populist politicians to speak out against the crime, to take sides. Pakistan is home to the world's worst cowards. But it's also Malalai's home. Let's hope she makes it, and inspires many to follow in her small but indelible footsteps. There's something -- and someone -- for the Nobel committee to consider.

Clinton, Ban Ki Moon condemn attack on Malala Yousafzai

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday condemned the shooting of an outspoken 14-year old Pakistani advocate for girls’ education. She said the attack should serve as a call to action for those promoting the rights of women and girls. Clinton said the shooting of Malala Yousufzai should galvanize support for “brave young women … who struggle against tradition and culture and even outright hostility, and sometimes violence” to pursue their rights. She blamed the attack on extremists who are threatened by girls’ empowerment. The Taliban has taken responsibility for Monday’s shooting in Pakistan’s volatile Swat Valley. Clinton said the “attack reminds us of the challenges that girls face, whether it is poverty or marginalisation or even violence just for speaking out for their basic rights.” UN chief outraged at attack on Malala UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expressing outrage and the strongest condemnation over the shooting of Malala Yousufzai. He declared the attack as a ”heinous and cowardly act,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said. Ban urged that the perpetrators be swiftly brought to justice and expressed solidarity with Pakistan’s efforts to confront violent extremism, he said. Nesirky said Wednesday that the secretary-general was deeply moved by Malala’s ”courageous efforts” to promote education, a right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He said Ban is writing to her family to express his hope for her full and speedy recovery, and expresses sympathy to the two other girls injured in the attack.

Afghan President telephones President Zardari‚ condemns attack on Malala

Radio Pakistan

President Hamid Karzai telephoned President Asif Ali Zardari Wednesday evening and condemned the murderous attack on Malala Yousafzai and her school fellows. He expressed grief and shock over the attack which he called as cowardly. Thanking President Karzai‚ President Zardari said that Malala and her school friends symbolized the quest of our children for education and social uplift and demonstrated our national spirit to stand up to militants and extremists. He said such incidents of barbarity strengthened national resolve to fight militants to the finish. President Zardari said the culprits will not escape retribution and will not go unpunished.

KP govt announces Rs10 million bounty for attackers of Malala

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday announced head money of Rs10 million for those who will help identify or provide any lead to get the attackers, who had shot Malala Yousafzai, arrested, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives, KP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the KP government has announced a reward for those citizens who will help identify the attackers, who fired bullet shots at Malala, injuring her severally. The National Peace Award winner and young Pakistani children’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai was attacked by Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday in Mingora city of Swat. The KP information minister said Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti has personally announced that Rs10 million will be paid to those who will help in leading to arrest or identification of the attackers. Main Iftihar said the names and identity of the citizens, who will be facilitating the law enforcement agencies, will be kept secret. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has vowed to bring to justice the Taliban attackers behind the shooting. “No matter where the terrorists may escape, we will bring them to justice,” said Malik, speaking to reporters at a press conference in Peshawar. “We have identified the gang which carried out the attack (on Malala Yousafzai) … and we also know when the terrorists arrived in Swat,” he added.

Peshawar Rally Condemns Taliban Attackers

http://www.rferl.org

More than 100 activists in northwestern Pakistan have rallied to protest Taliban militants' shooting of 14-year-old peace activist Malala Yousafzai. The Pakistani peace group Amn Tehreek (Peace Movement) organized the protest in Peshawar, where Yousafzai is being treated in a military hospital after being shot in the head and neck on October 9 as she returned home from a girls school in the volatile northwestern Swat Valley. Her condition has been described as critical but stable after successful surgery to remove a bullet lodged in her neck. "She did not talk since she was operated on and she is unconscious," Ahmad Shah, a family friend of Yousafzai, told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal on October 10. "The doctors say she will remain in the same condition for another 48 hours." Shah said doctors were monitoring her condition to determine whether Yousafzai needed to be moved abroad for treatment. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack in Saidu Sharif, the capital of the northwestern Swat district, calling Yousafzai's campaigning work "obscenity." The demonstrators in Peshawar held banners and placards with slogans condemning terrorism and calling for a peaceful future for their children. Maryam Bibi, the head of a local nongovernmental organization who attended the demonstration, called on the government to put an end to the intimidation of civilians by the Taliban. "These people want to enforce their will over us by force. And they want to impose their will on the weak people. Malala, an innocent girl, is an example of that," Bibi said.Pakistani politicians, led by the president and prime minister, civil society, and the media have strongly condemned the attack. Yousafzai has been awarded international and Pakistani prizes for highlighting Taliban atrocities and the plight of the people of Swat in a 2009 blog for the BBC. Pakistani politicians, led by the president and prime minister, civil society, and the media have strongly denounced the attack. In a unanimous resolution on October 10, the Pakistani parliament called for the perpetrators of the attack to be punished and asked the government to pay for Yousafzai’s treatment. Pakistan's influential army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, visited Yousafzai in hospital and condemned her shooting as a "heinous act of terrorism." "The cowards who attacked Malala and her fellow students have shown time and again how little regard they have for human life and how low they can fall in their cruel ambition to impose their twisted ideology," Kavani said. The attack on Yousafzai has also drawn strong condemnation abroad. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said her assailants opposed "progress and development of the peoples” on both sides of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called the shooting "barbaric" and "cowardly." Leila Zerrougui, the UN special representative for children in armed conflict, condemned the attack "in the harshest terms." Yousafzai came to public attention in 2009 by writing a blog about the atrocities of the Pakistani Taliban while militants controlled the Swat Valley where she lives. One or more gunmen opened fire on Yousafzai's school bus after reportedly asking her identity, seriously wounding her but also injuring two other children.

Malala Yousafzai 'will not be silenced'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

The family of the 14-year-old girl shot by the Taliban say the assassination attempt will not force them to flee Pakistan or silence their daughter's criticism of extremists.

Malala Yousafzai remains in a critical condition after being singled out by gunmen on her way home from school on Tuesday. Her courage in writing a blog about life under the Pakistan Taliban when they controlled the Swat Valley has turned her into a national hero in a country where few are brave enough to challenge extremism. Doctors cannot yet say whether she will make a full recovery. Hours after surgeons removed a bullet from his daughter's neck, Ziaddun Yousafzai told The Daily Telegraph that his family had no intention of seeking asylum overseas. "We wouldn't leave our country if my daughter survives or not," said Mr Yousafzai, at the military hospital in the north-western city of Peshawar where Malala is being treated."We have an ideology that advocates peace. The Taliban cannot stop all independent voices through the force of bullets." He added that the family had received multiple threats but had never considered stopping their campaign against the Taliban or leaving Mingora, the main town of Swat. Mr Yousafzai also said his family had rejected offers of security for his daughter in the past. "We stayed away from that because she is a young female. The tradition here does not allow a female to have men close by," he said. The Pakistan Taliban has already said it will try again to kill Malala if she survives. On Wednesday family friends reported fresh threats against Malala's father and brother. Malala won international recognition for highlighting Taliban atrocities in Swat with an anonymous blog for the BBC three years ago, when the Islamist 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 denied an education by Islamist militants. Gunmen flagged down her school bus on Tuesday and opened fire after asking for the young activist by name. Two other girls were injured. A spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban has tried to justify they the attack, accusing Malala of embarking on a secular, pro-Western campaign at odds with the conservative values of the local Pashtun population. The nature of the attack has stunned Pakistan, a country hardened by years of militant and army brutality. Human rights groups, politicians and commentators have united in condemnation raising hopes the shooting might prove a turning point in the country's perceived reluctance to take on militant havens in the north-west. It has also raised serious questions about security more than three years after the army claimed to have crushed a Taliban insurgency in the valley. For the time being, her hospital room has become a magnet for politicians and military leaders keen to burnish their anti-militant credentials. The military released a photograph of General Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan's powerful military chief, looking awkward beside her hospital bed. "The cowards who attacked Malala and her fellow students, have shown time and again how little regard they have for human life and how low they can fall in their cruel ambition to impose their twisted ideology," he said in a statement. The military said it had a simple message, which it wrote in capital letters in a statement to add emphasis: "WE REFUSE TO BOW BEFORE TERROR." Doctors, who operated on Malala in the early hours of the morning to remove a bullet from close to her spinal cord, have concluded she is too ill to be flown overseas for more specialist help. A 737 jet remains on standby to fly her to Dubai.

Malala Yousafzai: SWAT IN STATE OF SHOCK

Prayers offered for Malala's recovery

Teenage activist Malala Yousafzai recovering from surgery after being shot in attack claimed by Pakistani Taliban.

. Prayers are being offered across Pakistan for the recovery of Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old education rights activist, who has undergone surgery to remove a bullet lodged in her skull. Yousafzai was shot on Tuesday on her way home from school in Mingora, the main town in the Swat Valley region of northwest Pakistan, and is being treated at Peshawar's Combined Military Hospital. She remains in critical condition, family members told Al Jazeera. Ahmed Shah Yousafzai, Malala's uncle, said there was "strict security inside and outside the hospital", after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistan's national airline has placed an air ambulance on standby to take Yousafzai abroad for treatment if needed, government sources said, but medics are wary of lengthy travel times given her unstable condition, while officials have rushed to issue her a passport. Students said that Yousafzai "is like our sister". "We pray for her earliest recovery and well-being," said 14-year-old Shamaila. "We also pray that other students can benefit from Malala's enlightening views."Yousafzai was with her classmates, taking a school van home following an examination at the Khushal public school, when unidentified men stopped the vehicle, asking if it was the transport from that school. When told that it was, one man asked: "Where is Malala?" As she was identified, the assailant reportedly drew a pistol and shot Yousafzai in the head and the neck. Another girl on the bus was also wounded. "The man started firing a handgun [...] then I don't know what happened to me and found myself in hospital," said Shazia Ramazan, a friend of Yousafzai who was shot in the hand. Doctors at the Saidu Sharif Medical Complex in Mingora said the bullet penetrated Yousafzai's skull but missed her brain, leaving her out of immediate danger. Pakistani Taliban claim Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Taliban spokesman, told reporters that the group had repeatedly warned Yousafzai to stop speaking out against them. "She is a Western-minded girl. She always speaks against us," he said by telephone from an undisclosed location. "We will target anyone who speaks against the Taliban. "We warned her several times to stop speaking against the Taliban and to stop supporting Western non-governmental organisations, and to come to the path of Islam." The Taliban said it was not only "allowed" to target young girls, but it was "obligatory" when such a person "leads a campaign against Islam and Sharia". The spokesman also referred to the Quranic story of Hazrat Khizar, who killed a young child, justifying it to Prophet Musa (Moses in other religions), by saying the boy would overburden his pious parents with his disobedience, and that God would "replace" the boy with a more obedient son. Ehsan said that the Pakistani Taliban had not banned education for girls, "instead, our crime is that we tried to bring the education system for both boy and girls under Sharia". "We are deadly against co-education and secular education systems, and Sharia orders us to be against it," he said. The group also criticised media coverage of the shooting, saying: "After this incident, [the] media poured out all of its smelly propaganda against Taliban mujahideen with their poisonous tongues. " ... will the blind media pay any attention to the hundreds of respectful sisters whom are in the secret detention centres of ISI [Pakistan's spy agency] and suffering by their captivity? "Would you like to put an eye on more than 3,000 young men killed in secret detention centres, whose bodies are found in different areas of Swat, claimed to be killed in encounters and died by cardiac arrest?" Daughter of Pakistan' President Asif Ali Zardari strongly condemned the attack, but said it would not shake Pakistan's resolve to battle fighters or the government's determination to support women's education. Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf called Yousafzai "a daughter of Pakistan". Private schools in the Swat valley shut their doors on Wednesday, in protest at the attack, though government schools are open as per their normal routine. Further demonstrations against the Taliban were also expected in the Swat district later on Wednesday. Victoria Nuland, the US State Department spokeswoman, said: "Directing violence at children is barbaric. It's cowardly. And our hearts go out to her and the others who were wounded, as well as their families." The local chapter of the TTP, led by Maulana Fazlullah, controlled much of Swat from 2007 to 2009, but were ousted by an army offensive in July 2009. Local reports indicate, however, that the group was only driven into the surrounding areas, rather than being wiped out, and it has since staged a resurgence. Tuesday's shooting in broad daylight in Mingora, the main town of the valley, raises serious questions about security more than three years after the army claimed to have crushed the local Taliban. Peace award Yousafzai rose to international prominence as an 11-year-old in 2009, writing an anonymised diary for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban, before featuring in two documentaries made by New York Times journalists. She also featured in an Al Jazeera documentary. She had famously stood against the TTP's attempts to stop girls from going to school, and was awarded the National Peace Award for Youth. The international children's advocacy group KidsRights Foundation nominated her for the International Children's Peace Prize, making her the first Pakistani girl put forward for the award. Her struggle resonated with tens of thousands of girls who were being denied an education by the Taliban and other armed groups across northwest Pakistan, where the government has been fighting such groups since 2007. Diary extract In a 2011 BBC News report, Yusafzai read out an extract of her diary that gave a sense of the fear she endured under the Taliban. "I was very much scared because the Taliban announced yesterday that girls should stop going to schools," she said. "Today our head teacher told the school assembly that school uniform is no longer compulsory and from tomorrow onwards, girls should come in their normal dresses. Out of 27, only 11 girls attended the school today." London-based rights group Amnesty International condemned Tuesday's "shocking act of violence". "This attack highlights the extremely dangerous climate human rights activists face in northwestern Pakistan, where particularly female activists live under constant threats from the Taliban and other militant groups," it said. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's information minister, said Yousafzai had been targeted as "an icon of peace", calling for a sweeping military offensive against all anti-state fighters in northwest Pakistan. Asked if Malala would continue her work if she recovered, Ahmed Shah Yousafzai, her uncle, told Al Jazeera: "Yes, of course. "She always raises her voice in favour of girl's education, and she was going to establish a foundation named after her name - Malala Education Foundation - and she wanted to work for those children who are not able to go to the school."

2009 documentary by Adam B. Ellick profiled Malala Yousafzai

A 2009 documentary by Adam B. Ellick profiled Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl whose school was shut down by the Taliban. Ms. Yousafzai was shot by a gunman on Tuesday.

Pakistanis pray for teen blogger shot by Taliban; condemn brazen attack

Perhaps it was the prayers of an outraged nation, perhaps her own indomitable spirit. But Malala Yousufzai, the 14-year-old school girl sought out and shot by the Taliban for blogging against them, was slowly recuperating Wednesday morning from the brazen attack that almost snatched her young life. Doctors successfully removed a bullet lodged in her neck after three hours of surgery, and said her condition was no longer critical. "Inshallah (God willing), she will survive," said Dr. Mumtaz Ali, a neurosurgeon who worked on Malala with three colleagues. Pakistan is a country numbed by the depressing regularity of extremist attacks. But the Tuesday morning attack stunned even the weariest. Taliban militants stopped a school van carrying Malala and two other girls on their way home from school in northwest Pakistan's Swat Valley. "Malala Yousufzai sok daa?"Who is Malala Yousufzai?, one of them asked in Pashtun. When the girls pointed Malala out, the men opened fire. The bullets struck all three girls. For two of them, the injuries were not life-threatening. For Malala, it was touch-and-go for a while. Read more: 14-year-old girl wins Pakistan's first peace prize Pakistan's Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani paid a visit to her hospital bed. The chief minister of Punjab, the province where Swat is located, said he would bear the cost of Malala's treatment, calling her "the daughter of Pakistan."The head of PIA, the national airline, said he was putting a plane on standby to take Malala "anywhere in the world if needed" for treatment. And Pakistanis, hurt and angry, prayed. "Malala is what Taliban will never be," said Murtaza Haider, the associate dean of research and graduate programs at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto's Ryerson University, in an opinion piece in the Dawn newspaper. "She is fearless, enlightened, articulate, and a young Muslim woman who is the face of Pakistan and the hope for a faltering nation that can no longer protect its daughters." A valley under siege Pakistan's picturesque Swat Valley was once one of Pakistan's biggest tourist destinations. The valley, near the Afghanistan border and about 186 miles (300 km) from the capital city of Islamabad, boasted the country's only ski resort. It was a draw for trout-fishing enthusiasts and visitors to the ancient Buddhist ruins in the area. But that was before, militants -- their faces covered with dark turbans -- unleashed a wave of violence.They demanded veils for women, beards for men and a ban on music and television. They allowed boys' schools to operate. But closed those for girls. It was in this climate that Malala reached out to the outside world through her online blog posts. She took a stand by writing about her daily battle with extremist militants who used fear and intimidation to force girls to stay at home. Malala's online writing led to her being awarded Pakistan's first National Peace Prize in November. Former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani directed Pakistan's Cabinet to award the prize each year to a child under 18 who contributes to peace and education. The Taliban controlled Malala's valley for years until 2009, when the military cleared it in an operation that also evacuated thousands of families. But pockets remain, and violence is never far behind. The Taliban has already claimed responsibility for the attack on Malala's life. And on Wednesday, as police took the van driver and the school guard into custody for questioning, they issued another ominous threat. Responding to reports that Malala had survived the attack, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban said, ""if she survives this time, she won't next time. We will certainly kill her."

Malala Yousufza: UPDATE

ډاکټران د ملالي یوسفزۍ له اپرېشنه ډاډه ديً

http://www.mashaalradio.com

د خیبر پښتونخوا د سوات د اوسېدونکې ملالي یوسفزۍ روغتیايي حالت د ډاډ وړ ښودل شوی دی. تېره شپه د پېښور په پوځي روغتون (سي ایم ایم ایچ ) کې د اپرېشن له لارې د هغې سر ته نژدې نښتې مرمۍ اېستل شوې ده.

په روغتون کې موجود د ملالې یوسفزۍ یو خپل احمد شاه مشال راډیو ته وویل چې تېره شپه له یوې تر پنځو بجو د هغې اپرېشن شوی دی او هغه ګولۍ یې له بدنه اېستل شوېده چې د سر له خوا د ملا پر لورې تللې وهً. احمد شاه زیاته کړه چې ً د اپرېشن لپاره ورغلي ډاکټران د ملالي یوسفزۍ له اپرېشن څخه ډاډه او هیلمن ښکاريً . د درملنې لپاره له پاکستانه کوم بل هیواد ته د وړلو په اړه احمد شاه وویل چې ً ډاکټران یې د روغتیايي حالت جاج اخلي او له هغه وروسته به په دې اړه پرېکړه کويً. پر ملاله یوسفزۍ برید پر ملاله یوسفزۍ د سېشنبې په ورځ د سوات په مېنګوره کې هغه وخت د نامالومو وسله والو له خوا برید وشو چې دا له خپلې بلې ملګرې سره په یو موټر کې له سکوله د کور پرخوا روانه وه. وسله والو لومړی د ملالې یوسفزۍ د نامه پوښتنه وکړه خو په دې اړه د موټر چلوونکي له انکاره وروسته هغوی پر دوی ډزې وکړې او د پېښې له ځایه وتښتېدل. ملاله یوسفزۍ او د هغې ملګرې دواړه په ټپي حالت کې د سېدو شریف روغتون ته یوړل شوې او له هغه ځایه د پاکستان د وزیراعظم راجا پروېز اشرف په لارښوونه ملاله یوسفزۍ په هیلي کاپټر کې د پېښور پوځي روغتون ته یوړل شوه. د ملالې یوسفزۍ درملنه پاکستاني ولسمشر اصف علي زرداري ویلي دي چې د ملالې یوسفزۍ د علاج لپاره به ټول انتظامات د پاکستان حکومت کوي. د پاکستان د کورنیو چارو وزیر رحمان ملک ویلي دي چې په بل هیواد کې د علاج لپاره یې د ملالې یوسفزۍ د وړلو په خاطر یې د ځانګړې الوتکې بندوبست کړی دی. ډاکترانو ویلي وو کېدای شي چې د ملالې یوسفزۍ د ژوند د ژغورلو لپاره یې د ښې درملنې په موخه کوم بل هیواد ته ولېږي. پر ملاله یوسفزۍ د برید پړه پر ملاله یوسفزۍ د شوي مرګوني برید پړه تحریک طالبان پاکستان پر غاړه واخیسته. د وسله والو طالبانو ویاند احسان الله احسان خبري رسنیو ته وویل چې پر ملاله یوسفزۍ یې ځکه برید کړی دی چې د هغوی په وینا ً دې د سیکولرزم خپرولو لپاره کار کاوی ً. د دې غندنه (پاکستان) د پاکستان ولسمشر اصف علي زرداري ، د دې ملک وزیراعظم راجا پروېز اشرف ، د خیبر پښتونخوا حکومتي غړو ، د پاکستاني پوځ مشر جنرال اشفاق پروېز کیاني او د ملک د زیاتره ګوندونو مشرانو پر ملاله یوسفزۍ تر سره شوی مرګونی برید غندلی دی. د دې غندنه (نړیوال) د افغانستان ولسمشر حامد کرزي پر ملاله یوسفزۍ برید غندلی او دا یې د هغه چا کار بللی دی چې د هغه په وینا د ډيورنډ د کرښې دواړو غاړو ته بې ګناه او پوهه خلک وژني. د امریکا د بهرنیو چارو د وزارت ویاندې ویکټوریه نولېنډ پر ملاله یوسفزۍ تر سره شوی مرګونی برید یو بذدلانه او وحشتناک عمل بللی دی. په جنګي سيمو کې د ماشومانو لپاره د ملګرو ملتونو ځانګړې استازې ليلی زروګويې هم په سختو ټکو کې پر ملاله یوسفزۍ پرونی بريد غندلی دی. د بخښنې د نړيوال سازمان یا ايمنسټي انټرنيشنل د پاکستان لپاره څېړونکي مصطفی قادری ويلي هم پر ملاله یوسفزۍ د برید غندنه کړېده او ویلي یې دي چې له طالبانو د سیمې د واک اخیستل د پوځي عملیاتو د بریالیتوب په مانا نه دي. ملاله یوسفزۍ څوارلس کلنه ملاله یوسفزۍ د خیبر پښتونخوا د سوات د مېنګورې اوسېدونکې ده او له هغه وروسته یې په نړیواله کچه شهرت ترلاسه کړ چې د (بي بي سي ) پر ویب پاڼه به یې په سوات کې د وسله والو طالبانو د واک پر وخت لیکنې کولې. ملالي یوسفزۍ د پاکستان په کچه د امن اېوارډ اخیستی دی او هم داسې د امن یوې نړیوالې اجایزې ته نومول شوې وه.

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.

NA passes resolution condemning Taliban attack on Malala

FRONTIER POST

Pakistan’s National Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution condemning a Taliban attack on 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai for speaking out against the militants, FP News desk reported. Usual proceedings of the assembly were temporarily suspended today to open the floor for a debate on the the attack by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) gunmen. Following the debate, Law Minister Farooq H Naek tabled the resolution condemning the attack and asking for the culprits to be brought to justice. The resolution was unanimously approved by the house. Malala Yousufzai was shot her in the head and neck on Tuesday as she left school. Yousufzai began standing up to the Pakistani Taliban when she was just 11, when the government had effectively ceded control of the Swat Valley, where she lives, to the militants. Her courage made her a national hero and many Pakistanis are shocked by her shooting.

Gen. Kayani visits CMH Peshawar to oversee treatment being given to Malala

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Wednesday visited CMH Peshawar to oversee the treatment being given to Malala Yousafzai and to meet her family. Strongly condemning this heinous act of terrorism, he said, the cowards who attacked Malala and her fellow students, have shown time and again how little regard they have for human life and how low they can fall in their cruel ambition to impose their twisted ideology. He said this is not the first time they have targeted children, the attack on Parade Lane, Rawalpindi is a painful reminder of their bloodlust. He said They have no respect even for the golden words of the Prophet (PBUH) that "the one who is not kind to children, is not amongst us." Such inhuman acts clearly expose the extremist mindset the nation is facing, he added. In attacking Malala, the terrorist have failed to grasp that she is not only an individual, but an icon of courage and hope, who vindicates the great sacrifices that the people of Swat and the nation gave for wresting the valley from the scourge of terrorism, he said. Gen. Kayani said, Malala has become a symbol for the values that the Army, with the nation behind it, is fighting to preserve for our future generations, according to an ISPR press release. He said these are the intrinsic values of an Islamic society, based on the principles of liberty, justice and equality of man. Islam guarantees each individual - male or female - equal and inalienable rights to life, property and human dignity, with faith and education as the chief obligations to achieve enlightenment, he added. "We wish to bring home a simple message: We refuse to bow before terror. We will fight, regardless of the cost we will prevail, Insha Allah," he said. The COAS re-emphasized that the terrorists underestimate the resolve and resilience of the people of Pakistan. "It is time we further unite and stand up to fight the propagators of such barbaric mindset and their sympathizers", he said.

Millions pray for Pakistani child shot at by Talib

Millions of people prayed for the early recovery of child peace campaigner Malala Yousafzai, who a leading Pakistani daily said was "fighting the most arduous battle of her life" after the Taliban shot at her. "With millions of people praying for her life and early recovery, the way she was living in the once militants infested Swat valley without any proper security measures speaks of how we treat our heroes," said an article in the Dawn Wednesday, a day after Malala was shot at when she was on her way home from school. Describing her as "the progressive face of Pakistan in general and Swat valley in particular", it said that she is today "fighting the most arduous battle of her life".The 14-year-old girl, Pakistan's first National Peace Award winner, was shot and seriously injured by gunmen in the country's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Tuesday. The Taliban has accepted responsibility. An attacker wearing a police uniform stopped the school bus and opened fire at her. In the attack, the girl was seriously wounded, while two other girls incurred slight injuries. The article pointed out that though government functionaries, including the prime minister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, chief minister, federal ministers and others started condemnation of attack on her life by militants, "none of them would accept the lapse on their part". "Why she was not provided security by the government despite the fact that she had assumed international fame because of her outspoken criticism of militants, especially their approach towards female education?" it asked. It demanded that the security forces, who have been administering Swat valley since an operation in 2009, "also need to clarify their position". "The moot question is when security could be provided to the ruling elite...then why Malala was left at the mercy of militants. Returning from school without any security guard, she was a soft target for those who wanted to eliminate her because of her thinking," it added. It went on to say that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has once again "proved that militants can go to any extent against those, who don't share their ideology". "In the past, they have killed women; pulled out bodies from graves; bombed mosques, schools, funeral prayers and jirgas; beheaded people and displayed their severed heads in public places," it added. Lauding Malala, the article said that her meteoric rise to fame was not because of sheer luck rather "it was because of her struggle and her candid views regarding what had happened in Swat valley and how Taliban had inflicted damage on the education sector by blowing up dozens of schools". Malala is in the ICU and "millions of people not only in Pakistan but in other parts of the world are praying for her". "Hope the prayers of these millions of people would bear fruit and this brave girl would once again be present among her people and striving for the message which she has been preaching for the last over three years," it added.

Malala Yousafzai: Shooting of teen peace activist triggers revulsion

http://www.thehindu.com

Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old peace activist who became the `voice of girls in Swat’ when the Taliban controlled the valley in 2008, was injured in a shooting incident on Tuesday; triggering a nationwide wave of revulsion at terrorists and their apologists.

Malala was returning from school in Swat when unidentified assailants opened fire at the vehicle in which she was travelling. Two other passengers were also injured in the attack. Malala was first taken to a local hospital. Her condition was reported to be stable even as Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf announced in Parliament that a helicopter was being sent to Mingora to bring her to Islamabad for treatment. Malala had received death threats from the Taliban for speaking out against terrorism and advocating girls education. According to some media reports, the assailants first asked the passengers in the vehicle to identify Malala. When they did not oblige, the assailants opened indiscriminate fire at the vehicle. Malala shot to prominence in 2009 when she began writing a diary in Urdu under the pseudonym `Gul Makai’ for the BBC about the travails of living under the Taliban regime. She was only 11 then but her heart-rending accounts caught international attention and she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize by Amsterdam-based advocacy group KidsRights in 2011. As news broke of Malala being shot, condemnation was quick to follow from across the political spectrum.Anguished by the television footage of the girl being treated in hospital, the general drift of the discourse on all platforms – television and social media – was that the `fog of war’ was not an excuse Pakistan could any longer afford. The nation would have to see terrorism for all its evils without making excuses for it; that there cannot be ``good terrorists and bad terrorists’’.

Malala :Women rights NGOs summon emergency session

Malala Yousafzai was shot on her school bus with two friends in Swat on Tuesday. The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working for the rights of women have called an emergency session in Peshawar following the attack on Malala Yousafzai. The session will review the current situation of the city and will discuss the future course of action in the region. According to sources, the activists will also stage a protest against the brutal attack of Taliban on Malala Yousafzai. Malala Yousafzai was shot on her school bus with two friends in Swat on Tuesday, then flown to the main northwestern city of Peshawar to be admitted to a military hospital.

Malala Yousafzai: Ideological warrior: Surviving an insurgency

Named after Afghan queen Malalay, who was credited with routing the British in the second Anglo-Afghan war in 1878, 14-year old Malala Yousafzai

achieved a feat no less. Her resilience and courage helped rout the Taliban mindset that opposed female education in the Swat Valley. Writing for the BBC Yousafzai rose to international fame for chronicling the plight of children for the BBC under the penname Gul Makai, during the Taliban insurgency years. “In 2008, when the Taliban imposed a ban on girls’ education in Swat, I floated an idea to publish a diary from any schoolgirl in Swat, to lend a human touch to the tragedy,” said Abdul Hai Kakar, a former BBC Urdu journalist in Peshawar. “I contacted her father, Ziauddin, to find a girl who could write the diary for the BBC but he could not find anyone – everyone was afraid,” Kakar said. “Ziauddin offered that his daughter can write, under her real name, but I gave her a pseudonym Gul Makai, for security reasons,” he added. The blog, starting in late 2008, was published weekly. “I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taliban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid going to school because the Taliban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools,” Gul Makai writes on January 3, 2009. In November 2011, Yousafzai was nominated for International Children Peace Prize by Dutch organisation KidsRights. She did not receive the award, but the government of Pakistan decided to acknowledge her efforts, and awarded her the first-ever national Peace Award. The award was also named after her. Candid, outspoken The Express Tribune interviewed Yousafzai at her home last February. Even at the age of 13, she was articulate, outspoken and mature beyond her years. She spoke candidly about the militancy and the Taliban. “Taliban were pushing Swat back to the stone age with attacks on female education,” she said. “They simply did not want an educated society; educated mothers would not allow their children to turn into suicide bombers, and will not give away their jewelry to the militants in charity,” she said. She narrated the tales of fear and prosecution had to go through under the Taliban. “There was only fear,” she said, adding that one day, they were asked by the school administration to not wear the uniform, and hide their books beneath their shawls, so they may not invite militants’ attention. She said the country needed leaders, and that she would go on to become a politician. When asked what she wanted to say to the people of Swat, Yousafzai said, extremely candidly, that Swat’s people should not patronise any ‘mullahs’ in the future.

President Zardari orders to provide best medical treatment to Malala

RADIO PAKISTAN

Surgeons says‚ they have successfully removed a bullet from Malala Yousaf Zai

team of experts comprising army and civil neuro surgeons from Rawalpindi has arrived at CMH Peshawar for the medical chekup of malala yousufzai who was critically injured in an attack by the miscreants in Swat yesterday. The team will decide whether malala is in a position to shift her abroad or not for treatment. Meanwhile the doctors conducted a minor brain surgery of the Malala Yousafzaid early this morning. Arrangements have been finalised to send Malala Yousufzai Dubai for medical treatment on the directives of President Asif Ali Zardari. ======================== Arrangements have been finalised to send Malala Yousufzai Dubai for medical treatment on the directives of President Asif Ali Zardari. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said an air ambulance is standby to airlift Malala to Dubai. Meanwhile‚ a team of renowned army and civil Neuro Surgeons has arrived in Peshawar from Islamabad to examine the health condition of Malala Yousufzai. Peace Award winner 14-year old Malala Yousafzai was attacked by terrorists in Mingora yesterday for her stand against militancy in Swat. Two other girl students also sustained injuries in the firing on the bus carrying school children. Meanwhile‚ all the private educational institutions are closed in Shangla in protest against attack on Malala Yousufzai. ======================== US MALALA The United States has strongly condemned the attack on Malala Yousafzai‚ saying directing violence against children is barbaric. The US State Department spokesperson‚ Victoria Nuland in the daily briefing in Washington said our hearts go out to her and the others who were wounded‚ as well as their families. ======================== Peace Award winner 14-year old Malala Yousafzai and another girl were injured when their vehicle was attacked in Swat on Tuesday. She was rushed to District Headquarters Hospital in Saidu Sharif for initiate medical treatment. Later she was shifted to CMH Peshawar. According to doctors‚ she received two bullets‚ in the head and neck. Malala Yousafzai championed the cause of peace in Swat by blogging for the BBC under a pseudonym "Gul Makai." In her blogs‚ she highlighted the atrocities of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in Swat. For her courageous and outstanding services for peace under extremely hostile conditions‚ she was conferred with first National Peace Award by the Prime Minister in 2011. She was also nominated for International Children's Peace Prize by Kids Rights Foundation in Amsterdam. President Asif Ali Zardari has strongly condemned the attack on school van in Mingora‚ Swat‚ by unidentified gunmen today which injured schoolgirls including the winner of National Peace Award Ms. Malala Yousufzai. The President while expressing his concerns about the well-being of Malala Yousafzai directed the concerned authorities to provide best possible medical assistance to the injured girls. He directed that Ms. Malala and other injured girl be brought to the best hospital in the country on immediate basis‚ if needed. The President in his message also said that the terrorist would never be able to shaken the resolve of the nation through such dastardly acts and nation would continue its fight against militants till its logical conclusion. The President said that young girls like Malala Yousafzai symbolize the quest for knowledge of the girls of swat and other areas of Khyber Patkhtunkhwa. He said that the Government was determined to provide every possible support to the women of the area in their search for knowledge and education. ============================= Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf held a telephonic conversation with the father of Malala Yousafzai and expressed concerns over the attack. He strongly condemned the incident and assured him that the government will bear all the medical expenses on their treatment. He also informed him that he had directed the hospital authorities to extend best medical treatment to Malala as well as her friends who were injured in the attack. The Prime Minister also directed the Senior Minister Khyber Pakhtun Khwa Raheem Daad Khan to rush to Peshawar to convey the feelings of the President‚ Prime Minister‚ Bilawal Bhutto Zardari‚ Aseefa Bhutto Zardari and Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari. Amin Faheem is carrying bouquets for Malala Yousafzai and her friends on their behalf. The Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardar condemned the attack on Malala Yousufzai and prayed for her early recovery. He called for all those still living in denial to wake up and stand united against the threats Pakistan faces from with in. National Assembly has also condemned the attack on Malala Yousufzai and her companions. ============================== Speaking in the Senate‚ Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf also condemned the attack on Malala. He directed the provincial government to arrest the terrorists involved in the attack. National Assembly has also condemned the attack on Malala Yousufzai and her companions. Governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Barrister Syed Masood Kausar‚ Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti‚ PML-N President Nawaz Sharif‚ MQM Chief Altaf Hussain and other political leaders have also condemned the attack. ============================= Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has condemned the disgusting attack on the life of Malala Yousufzai and has prayed for her and her family. He said TTP is enemy of Pakistan‚ Islam and humanity. The PPP chairman called for all those still living in denial to wake up and stand united against the threats Pakistan faces from within. ============================ Interior Minister Rehman Malik has directed Secretary Interior for making arrangements for medical treatment of Malala Yousufzai abroad. He also directed Secretary Interior to make arrangements for sending her abroad for medical treatment in accordance with the advice of the doctors. ========================== Governor KPK Barrister Masood Kausar visited CMH Peshawar on Tuesday evening and enquired about the health of Malala Yusufzai. He conveyed good wishes to her on behalf of the President Asif Ali Zardari‚ Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. He also prayed for her early recovery. According to doctors‚ medical checkup of Malala Yusufzai has been completed and the next two to three days are very crucial for her. ========================= President Asif Ali Zardari has directed Interior Minister Rehman Malik to make arrangement for the provision of air ambulance to Malala Yousufzai. He said that she should be shifted to the nearest health facility. =========================== National Broadcasting Service of Radio Pakistan devoted a one hour programme to the unfortunate incident of attack on Malala Yousafzai‚ featuring her contribution towards promotion of knowledge in the face of various odds. Taking part in the programme‚ prominent politician Afzal Khan Lala said such incident would not weaken resolve of the people against terrorism and extremism. He paid tributes to Malala for her courageous role in the promotion of education and awareness. He also urged the Government and the authorities concerned to take measures to prevent such incidents in future. Callers from different areas of the country including Swat also condemned the incident and said an attempt has been made to silence voice of a girl who was waging a struggle for promotion of education through pen and spoke against extremist tendencies.

Malala Yousafzai: Pakistan bullet surgery 'successful'

Surgeons say they have successfully removed a bullet from the campaigning 14-year-old schoolgirl shot by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan's Swat Valley.

Malala Yousafzai is reported to be in a stable condition after Wednesday morning's operation in Peshawar. The campaigner for girls' rights was shot in the head on Tuesday as she headed home from school in Mingora. The attack, in which two other girls were wounded, has been widely condemned and sparked a social media firestorm. Pakistani politicians led by the president and prime minister condemned the shooting, which the US state department has called barbaric and cowardly. Thousands of people around the world have sent the teenage campaigner messages of support via social media. Bullet in the head Doctors who treated Miss Yousafzai in Mingora initially said she was out of danger, but she was then taken by helicopter to Peshawar for further treatment. Malala Yousafzai began her blog at the age of 11 There, doctors removed a bullet early on Wednesday morning, hospital officials told the BBC. Earlier, President Zardari said the attack would not shake Pakistan's resolve to fight Islamist militants or the government's determination to support women's education. The shooting - in which two other girls were reportedly wounded - has been condemned by most of Pakistan's major political parties, TV celebrities and human rights groups. Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told BBC Urdu on Tuesday that the group had attacked the teenager because she was anti-Taliban and secular, adding that she would not be spared if she survived. Car music banned Miss Yousafzai came to public attention in 2009 by writing a diary for BBC Urdu about life under Taliban militants who had taken control of the valley. She earned the admiration of many across Pakistan for her courage in speaking out about life under the rule of Taliban militants, correspondents say. She was just 11 when she started her diary, two years after the Taliban took over the Swat Valley and ordered girls' schools to close. The group captured the Swat Valley in late 2007 and remained in de facto control until they were driven out by Pakistani military forces during an offensive in 2009. While in power they closed girls' schools, promulgated Sharia law and introduced measures such as banning the playing of music in cars. In the diary, written under the pen-name Gul Makai for the BBC's Urdu service, she exposed the suffering caused by the militants. Her identity emerged after the Taliban were driven out of Swat and she later won a national award for bravery, while being nominated for an international children's peace award. Since the Taliban were ejected, there have been isolated militant attacks in Swat but the region has largely remained stable and many of the thousands of people who fled during the Taliban years have returned.

Malala Yousufzai !!!

THE NEWS

She would have known that they were going to come for her one day. Yet she carried on despite threats to herself and her family, displaying the courage and stoicism that have marked this young life as so very special. That knowledge became reality when the gunmen who stopped her vehicle on the way home from school verified her identity before opening fire, according to another girl who survived the attack. It was Malala Yousafzai that they had come for and she was hit twice, apparently once in the head and again in the chest. She did not die, and was rushed to the local hospital in Saidu Sharif by helicopter to the Peshawar Combined Military Hospital where her condition at the time of writing in the early evening of Tuesday was said to be critical but stable. And who was it who came for her? According to an unverified report, it was the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who are quick to own their work and deny that which is not theirs. On the balance of probabilities, it would seem that TTP made a determined attempt to kill a courageous schoolgirl who stood against the barbarism they represent, and fought for the education not only of herself but of all girls in the Swat Valley.

Malala Yousufzai is the winner of the National Peace Award in 2011 and was a nominee for the International Children’s Peace Prize – the first Pakistani girl to achieve such eminence. Interviews that have been published since she came to prominence reveal a young woman who is modest about her achievements. She seeks neither fame nor fortune and carried on her life as normally as she could, except that she was not an ordinary person – she had stood against ruthless murderers who would see every girls’ school blown up. Malala Yousafzai is in critical condition today, and so is Pakistan. We are infected with the cancer of extremism, and unless it is cut out we will slide ever further into the bestiality that this latest atrocity exemplifies.

Bullet pierced in Malala head taken out

The unidentified assailant’s bullet that had pierced into Malala head has been taken out by the doctors Wednesday morning, but she still remains unconscious, Geo New reported. Surgeon Professor Dr. Mumtaz talking to Geo News gave this great good news. He said that an operation was conducted at 2.00 A.M. in the night that continued until 5.00 A.M. in the wee hours and the bullet pierced in Malala head, which meanwhile traveling had come to her shoulder, was successfully taken out. He said that Malala Yusufzai’s condition was expected to improve, however, she was still unconscious.

Taliban shoot ‘liberal face’ of Mingora

DAILY TIMES

The Pakistani Taliban shot teenage children’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai in the head on her school bus in Mingora on Tuesday to avenge her campaigns for the right to an education in the militants’ former stronghold of Swat.

Many in the country reacted with shock and revulsion to the shooting of 14-year-old Malala, who was flown to intensive care in Peshawar after doctors said earlier she was out of danger. Police said two other girls were also wounded in the attack on Malala’s school bus, which the Taliban claimed, saying anyone who spoke out against them would suffer a similar fate. Malala won international recognition for highlighting Taliban atrocities in Swat with a blog for the BBC three years ago. 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 local Taliban 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. Malala, who earned global fame after she wrote ‘Swat Diary’ under a pseudonym during the Taliban-linked mayhem before the military regained lost ground in Swat in 2009, was airlifted to Peshawar where she was admitted to intensive neuro-care ward of a military hospital, said a military official. Doctors at the Saidu Sharif Medical Complex in Mingora, where she received initial treatment, said the bullet penetrated her skull but missed her brain, and she was out of danger. Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP the group carried out the attack after repeatedly warning Malala to stop speaking out against them. “She is a Western-minded girl. She always speaks against us. We will target anyone who speaks against the Taliban,” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location. Local residents, quoting eyewitnesses, said a bearded attacker sought Malala’s identity from other schoolmates after stopping the bus which was full of schoolchildren. “The attacker was asking who is Malala Yousafzai,” the residents said. Local journalist Ghulam Farooq in Mingora said the attack stunned the Swat residents who thought military operation in the area had wiped out the militants. “Local residents are stunned by the attack,” he told

US slams 'barbaric' attack on Malala Yousafzai

The United States on Tuesday denounced a "barbaric" and "cowardly" Taliban attack on a Pakistani teenage children's rights activist, Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head on her school bus. "We strongly condemn the shooting of Malala. Directing violence at children is barbaric, it's cowardly, and our hearts go out to her and the others who were wounded, as well as their families," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. Malala, 14, who led a campaign for the right to an education in the militants' former stronghold of Swat, is fighting for her life after the attack in which two other girls were wounded. She was flown to the northwestern city of Peshawar where a team of senior doctors said she was in a critical condition. Malala won international recognition for highlighting Taliban atrocities in Swat with a blog for the BBC three years ago, when Islamist militants burned girls' schools and terrorized the valley. Tuesday's shooting in broad daylight in Mingora, the main town of the Swat valley, raises serious questions about security more than three years after the army claimed to have crushed a Taliban insurgency. Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP the Islamist group carried out the attack after repeatedly warning Malala to stop speaking out against them. "She is a Western-minded girl. She always speaks against us. We will target anyone who speaks against the Taliban," he said by telephone from an undisclosed location. Yousafzai 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.

Pakistan prays for brave Malala Yousufzai

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has turned one of its planes into an air-ambulance to fly Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in the head by cowardly militants in Swat, to Dubai for treatment, Geo News reported. Managing Director PIA, Junaid Yunus, told Geo News that a makeshift air-ambulance was ready to airlift critically injured Malala to Dubai at the Peshawar Airport, however a medical board was yet make a decision on when she should be flown abroad for further medical treatment. Earlier, official orders were issued for arrangements to take critically injured Malala abroad for neurosurgery. Interior Minister Rehman Malik issued the order after the medical board of the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Peshawar, where Malala Yousafzai's detailed check-up was conducted, recommended that the 14-year old girl be taken abroad for treatment. According to reports, Malala has suffered a serious cerebrovascular injury after a bullet fired by the Taliban gunman penetrated her skull and stopped dangerously short of her spinal cord. The slug remains lodged in her brain. Excessive swelling of the brain tissue, which followed the injury tied neurosurgeons hands and no surgical procedure could be performed immediately. Doctors are trying to subside the inflammation so that the bullet could be dislodged. Malala was shot from almost a point-blank range. Therefore, the medical board that conducted the detailed check-up of Malala had advised that she be taken abroad for treatment. Taking her abroad, the board members said, can save her life. The next four days will be extremely critical for Malala's survival. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has directed Secretary Interior to make necessary arrangements for shifting Malala Yousafzai abroad. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti has also ordered that Malala be taken abroad for treatment. In a clear message following the terrorist act, the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility of the heinous attack on a 14-year old Malala as she travelled home from school along with other female classmates in a school van. Two other girls in the car also sustained injuries in the attack but their condition is said to be out of danger.