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MINGORA, Pakistan -- A Taliban gunman walked up to a bus taking children home from school in Pakistan's volatile Swat Valley on Tuesday and shot and wounded a 14-year-old activist known for championing the education of girls and publicizing atrocities committed by the Taliban, officials said.
The attack in the city of Mingora targeted 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who is widely respected for her work to promote the schooling of girls something that the Taliban strongly opposes. She was nominated last year for the International Children's Peace Prize.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, calling Malala's work "obscenity."
"This was a new chapter of obscenity, and we have to finish this chapter," said Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan by telephone. "We have carried out this attack."
The school bus was about to leave the school grounds in Mingora when a bearded man approached it and asked which one of the girls was Malala, said Rasool Shah, the police chief in the town. Another girl pointed to Malala, but the activist denied it was her and the gunmen then shot both of the girls, the police chief said.
Malala was shot twice once in the head and once in the neck but her wounds were not life-threatening, said Tariq Mohammad, a doctor at the main hospital in Mingora. The second girl shot was in stable condition, the doctor said. Pakistani television showed pictures of Malala being taken by helicopter to a military hospital in the frontier city of Peshawar.
what fear this young one must have instilled in these brave men......i would love to see the taliban eradicated from this world
ISLAMABAD -- Schools shut their doors in protest and Pakistanis across the country held vigils Wednesday to pray for a 14-year-old girl who was shot by a Taliban gunman after daring to advocate education for girls and criticize the militant group.
The shooting of Malala Yousufzai on Tuesday in the town of Mingora in the volatile Swat Valley horrified Pakistanis across the religious, political and ethnic spectrum. Many in the country hoped the attack and the outrage it has sparked will be a turning point in Pakistan's long-running battle against the Taliban, which still enjoys considerable public support for fighting U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
Top U.S. officials condemned the attack and offered to help the girl.
A Taliban gunman walked up to a bus taking children home from school and shot Malala in the head and neck. Another girl on the bus was also wounded. Pictures of the vehicle showed bloodstained seats where the girls were sitting.
Malala appeared to be out of immediate danger after doctors operated on her early Wednesday to remove a bullet lodged in her neck. But she remained in intensive care at a hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar, and Pakistan's Interior Minister said the next 48 hours would be crucial.
Small rallies and prayer sessions were held for her in Mingora, the eastern city of Lahore, the southern port city of Karachi and the capital of Islamabad. In newspapers, on TV and in social media forums, Pakistanis voiced their disgust with the attack, and expressed their admiration for a girl who spoke out against the Taliban when few dared.
Malala Yousufzai was wounded Tuesday as she left her school, Dawn News reported. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the shooting, charging the teen was pro-Western and opposed the Taliban. A spokesman for President Asif Ali Zardar Saturday asked about the health of two girls identified only as Shazia and Kainat also wounded when a gunman boarded their school bus in Mingora. Zardari said the government would pay for the girls' medical treatment.
Malala's condition was described as "satisfactory" in a military update, which said a board of doctors was monitoring her condition, The News International reported. On Friday, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf visited Malala. "It was not a crime against an individual but a crime against humanity and an attack on our national and social values," he told reporters.
Schools opened Friday with a prayer for Malala, who was known internationally for a blog she wrote for the BBC in which she detailed her attempts to get an education in a region controlled by the Taliban. A reward of more than $100,000 has been offered by Pakistani authorities for capture of her attackers.
Read more: Pakistani girl 'satisfactory' after attack - UPI.com
After the Taliban eagerly claimed credit for shooting 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, The New York Times reported that Pakistanis reacted with outrage to the attack on the girl, whose eloquent and determined advocacy of girls education had made her powerful symbol of resistance to Taliban ideology.
While government and Pakistani army leaders condmned the attack, The Washington Post reported that religious parties and mosque leaders were largely silent. The perception in America remains that Muslims were more outraged by an obscure YouTube video than by the attempted murder of a child and the Talibans promise to try again. The issue is complicated; American troops are in Afghanistan and have struck into Pakistan, including attacks that mistakenly killed children. But we reject any notion that the primary burden for attitude adjustment falls on Americans.
Wars kill children. Cults kill children. Whenever it happens, it is sick and unjust. No group that does it is religious. The word when it happens intentionally is evil.
Jac Wilder VerSteeg for The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board
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The Oct. 9 attack on Malala Yousufzai as she was returning home from school in Pakistan's northwest horrified people inside and outside the country. At the same time, it gave hope to some that the government would respond by intensifying its fight against the Taliban and their allies. But protests against the shooting have been relatively small until now, usually attracting no more than a few hundred people. That response pales in comparison to the tens of thousands of people who held violent protests in Pakistan last month against a film produced in the United States that denigrated Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
Demonstrations in support of Malala - and against rampant militant violence in the country in general - have also been fairly small compared with those focused on issues such as U.S. drone attacks and the NATO supply route to Afghanistan that runs through Pakistan. Right-wing Islamic parties and organizations in Pakistan that regularly pull thousands of supporters into the streets to protest against the U.S. have less of an incentive to speak out against the Taliban. The two share a desire to impose Islamic law in the country - even if they may disagree over the Taliban's violent tactics.
Pakistan's mainstream political parties are also often more willing to harangue the U.S. than direct their people power against Islamist militants shedding blood across the country - partly out of fear and partly because they rely on Islamist parties for electoral support. One of the exceptions is the political party that organized Sunday's rally in the southern port city of Karachi, the Muttahida Quami Movement. The party's chief, Altaf Hussain, criticized both Islamic and other mainstream political parties for failing to organize rallies to protest the attack on Malala.
He called the Taliban gunmen who shot the girl "beasts" and said it was an attack on "the ideology of Pakistan." "Malala Yousufzai is a beacon of knowledge. She is the daughter of the nation," Hussain told the audience by telephone from London, where he is in self-imposed exile because of legal cases pending against him in Pakistan. His party is strongest in Karachi. Many of the demonstrators carried the young girl's picture and banners praising her bravery and expressing solidarity.
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(ISLAMABAD) akistan airlifted a 14-year-old activist who was shot and seriously wounded by the Taliban to the United Kingdom for treatment Monday, a move that will give her access to the specialized medical care she needs to recover and also protect her from follow-up attacks threatened by the militants.
The attack on Malala Yousufzai as she was returning home from school in Pakistans northwest a week ago has horrified people both across the country and abroad. It has also sparked hope the government would respond by intensifying its fight against the Taliban and their allies.
Over 100 Taliban militants attacked a police station near the main northwest city of Peshawar late Sunday night, sparking a gunbattle that lasted several hours, police said. Six policemen were killed during the clash, including two who were beheaded.
Malala was targeted by the Taliban for promoting girls education and criticizing the militant group. Two of Malalas classmates were also wounded in the attack and are receiving treatment in Pakistan.
The Taliban said they attacked Malala because she was promoting Western thinking and have threatened to target her again until she is killed.
Malala was flown out of Pakistan on Monday morning in a specially equipped air ambulance provided by the United Arab Emirates, said the Pakistani military, which has been treating the young girl at one of its hospitals.
"I have rights. I have the right of education," Malala Yousufzai boldly asserted during an interview with CNN last year. Now the 14-year-old girl from Pakistan is slowly recovering after being shot in the head by the Taliban for blogging against them and defending the right of girls to go to school. Her plight has inspired people far beyond her home in the Taliban-heavy Swat Valley. Large crowds are rallying around the world to show support for Yousufzai and her cause. Before the attack, Yousufzai was in the process of starting a charity, the Malala Education Development Organization, to promote female education in northern Pakistan. Other organizations are also working in the region to turn her dream into a reality for all girls in Pakistan.
UNICEF condemned the assault, calling Yousufzai a "courageous voice" who speaks for millions of girls "desperate to receive and education." To make a donation to UNICEF's Stand with Malala campaign and support education programs in Pakistan, visit the organization's website. The Citizens Foundation has worked to improve education in Pakistan since 1995 and started 830 schools, according to the organization's website. The group says it encourages girls to enroll in its schools and works to ensure that approximately half of its students are female. Go online to make a donation.
Developments in Literacy also operates schools and provides teacher training in Pakistan. The organization says that more than 17,000 students are enrolled in its schools, approximately 68% of them girls, according to its website. To make a donation in honor of Yousufzai, visit the group's website. Be sure to write "Malala" in the notes. "I Am Malala" is an online petition honoring Yousufzai and calling for Pakistan and countries worldwide to ensure all children have access to the education. The initiative was launched by the Office of the U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education. To sign the petition, visit the website. You can also share your story and promote girls' education on CNN iReport. Girls + Education = #BasicMath is spreading the message that educating girls in developing nations can change the world.
Standing with Malala: Pakistani teen inspires others to fight for education - CNN.com
Swat Valley, Pakistan (CNN) -- A week ago today, a Pakistani schoolgirl who dared to speak out against the Taliban took a bullet to the head for her act of defiance.
Now, as Malala Yousufzai lies in a hospital bed in Birmingham, England, the shock and outrage among her countrymen have given way to a new sentiment: What will the government do about this?
While the Pakistani news media debate how the country should respond to the attack, thousands of people nationwide have joined in rallies in support of the wounded 14-year-old.
The shooting has prompted an unusually strong and united reaction of disgust and anger among many Pakistanis, analysts say.
General describes attack on Malala "There is a groundswell of sympathy for her and also a very strong demand for the Pakistani state to do something about this issue," said Raza Rumi, director of policy and programs at the Jinnah Institute, a Pakistani research organization.
Much of the discontent is directed toward the Pakistani Taliban, the extremist group that has claimed responsibility for the shooting and said it will seek to kill Malala if she recovers from her injuries.
"This has created a very bad feeling for the Taliban," said Saleem Khan, an executive with a paper manufacturing company in the city of Lahore.
Khan said he was "crying and weeping" after hearing of the attack on Malala, who had defied extremists in the northwestern Swat Valley by insisting on the right of girls to go to school.
The October 9 attack on 14-year-old Pakistani activist--shot in the head and neck on the school bus for her outspoken advocacy for girls' education--was a genuinely horrifying incident. A Taliban spokesman readily claimed responsibility for the attack, and the assassination attempt was immediately met by worldwide outrage. Most of the outpouring of anger took the form of protests, furiously written op-eds, and even a public denunciation of the gunmen by a group of 50 Pakistani Islamic clerics. But pop star Madonna, never one to shy from weighing in on the issue of the day, expressed her disgust in a way only Madonna can.
In the midst of a performance of her song "Human Nature" song at the Staples Center the day of the attack, the outspoken singer took a pause from stripping down into her bra and a thong to give the crowd her thoughts. Stenciled on her back, the world "Malala" was spelled out in black ink. "It's a lot easier to show your ass than it is to show your feelings, at least in this town" she said, with her back to the audience (although with her pants re-zipped.
In Pakistan, a 14-year-old girl was shot in the neck for writing a blog about the importance of being educated as a female. She was shot on her school bus because she wrote a blog about how passionate she was about going to school. She's in a hospital right now. Let's all pray she's going to make it. Her name is Malala, and this is for all girls around the world who deserve to have a voice. With her shirt still off, Madonna went into a slow and acoustic version of "Like a Virgin," rolling on the floor of the stage and laying on top of the upright black piano on stage. (This video contains some mild nudity.)
While the crowd seemed to enjoy the performance, others were uncomfortable with the conjunction of the songs she sang on either side of her speech, her state of undress and her sexualized movements with the topic of a young girl in a country where women are held to the highest standards of modesty. "Human Nature" includes lyrics such as "You wouldn't let me say the words I longed to say/ You didn't want to see life through my eyes/ (Express yourself, don't repress yourself)/ You tried to shove me back inside your narrow room/ And silence me with bitterness and lies," which fit nicely with a positive message in support of Malala. Although "Human Nature" is explicitly about sex, and may be offensive to some Muslims, it reinforces a positive image of feminine independence. "Like a Virgin" may not be so redeemable.
Read more: Madonna strips to support Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani girl shot by Taliban - UPI.com
Although it's difficult to gauge what such an improvement might mean given that the exact nature of Malala Yousufzai's brain injuries have yet to be made public, one expert said the news was good. "Any progress is hopeful," Dr. Jonathan Fellus, chief scientific officer at the New Jersey-based International Brain Research Foundation, said. "This is the natural course of recovery that we would expect." The Pakistani official, who spoke anonymously because he wasn't cleared to talk on the record about the case, said he had been briefed by doctors and that Malala's condition was "definitely much better" since she arrived in England on Monday. He added that the girl was moving her limbs, although he didn't elaborate.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, where Malala is being treated, released a statement Wednesday saying Malala was in "stable condition and continued to impress doctors by responding well to her care," but didn't go into detail. The hospital's acting head of communications, Carole Cole, said there would be no further news on the case until Thursday. Malala's family, which the hospital said was still in Pakistan, could not be reached for comment.
Malala was returning home from school in Pakistan last week when she was targeted by the Taliban for promoting female education and criticizing the militant group's behavior when they took over the Swat Valley, where she lived. The attack, in which two of her classmates were also wounded, has horrified many in Pakistan and across the world.
The Taliban have threatened to target Malala again, because she promotes "Western thinking." Fellus said in a phone interview that physical abilities were often the first to return in cases of traumatic brain injury, and that didn't mean that the teen would necessarily make a full recovery. Still, he said, "the earlier you start to see recovery, the better."
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/official-shot-pakistani-girl-moving-her-limbs
(LONDON) Doctors treating 15-year-old Pakistani shooting victim Malala Yousufzai said Friday that she is able to stand with help and to write, though she still shows signs of infection.
The girl is well enough that shes agreed that shes happy, in fact keen, for us to share more clinical detail, said Dr. Dave Rosser, medical director at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham,
She is also keen that I thank people for their support and their interest because she is obviously aware of the amount of interest and support this has generated around the world.
The infection is probably related to the track of a bullet that grazed her head when she was attacked by Taliban gunmen, he said.
She is not out of the woods yet, Rosser said.
Having said that, shes doing very well. In fact, she was standing with some help for the first time this morning when I went in to see her.
Malala was shot and critically wounded on Oct. 9 as she headed home from school in the northwest Swat Valley. The Taliban said they targeted Malala, a fierce advocate for girls education, because she promoted Western thinking and was critical of the militant group.
Malala was flown from Pakistan to Birmingham on Monday for advanced medical treatment and for security protection. The medical briefing Friday offered the first real indication of her progress. Earlier briefings were quite limited out of respect for the girls privacy.
She is in Britain alone. Hospital officials have been in touch with her family in Pakistan.
Rosser said the girl is communicating very freely, she is writing but not speaking because she has a tracheotomy tube in her throat.
We have no reason to believe that she would not be able to talk once this tube is out, maybe in the next few days, Rosser said.
Scans have revealed some physical damage to her brain, but at this stage were not seeing any deficit in terms of function, Rosser said.
She seems able to understand. Shes got motor control, shes able to write.
Whether theres any subtle intellectual or memory deficits down the line is too early to say, he added.
Sick and tired of the supposedly negative propaganda being pedalled against hardline Muslims by a 14-year-old girl, members of the Pakistani Taliban decided to do something about it. They shot her in the head. Malala Yousufzais crime was to advocate girls education. That, and her admiration for US President Barack Obama, led the Talibans chief spokesman to describe her as a symbol of the infidels and of obscenity. His organisation has in the past busied itself blowing up dozens of girls schools and beheading ideological opponents, presumably in the cause of piety and decency.
The attack on Malala, who has now been flown to Britain for emergency treatment, has galvanised moderate opinion in Pakistan. Mass rallies have been held to pray for her recovery and many of Pakistans leading religious groups have joined in condemning the attack. The outpouring is reminiscent of the national shock that greeted images of Taliban flogging women in the Swat valley three years ago and support for a subsequent military assault against extremists.
Before she was flown to the UK, General Ashfaq Parvaiz Kayani, Chief of the Army Staff, visited Malala in the Peshawar hospital where she was being treated. General Kayani, who called the attack a heinous act of terrorism, said: Islam guarantees each individual male or female equal and inalienable rights to life, property and human dignity. Given the circumstances, he would have done well to add education.
It has taken the bravery and eloquence of a 14-year-old girl to highlight a crucial development issue: Female education. A 2004 study on girls education, titled A Scorecard on Gender Equality and Girls Education in Asia 1990-2000, found that Pakistan ranked at the bottom among 17 Asian countries. The study measured four criteria, including girls enrolment and five-year survival rates at primary school. Of a possible rating of 100, achieved by Japan, South Korea and Singapore, Pakistan scored just 20. That put it below Laos, at 26, and Myanmar, at 34.
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Malala Yousufzai, shot by Taliban gunmen for advocating girls' education, was flown from Pakistan to Britain to receive treatment after the attack this month which drew widespread condemnation and an international outpouring of support. "Every day an Afghan girl is abused, raped, has acid thrown on her face and mutilated. Yet no one remembers or acknowledges these girls," Elay Ershad, who represents the nomadic Kuchi people in Afghan parliament, told Reuters.
Echoing concerns of other prominent Afghan women, Ershad said the government took no real interest in women's rights, instead using the issue for political gain and currying favor with Western backers, a claim Kabul has dismissed as untrue. President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly condemned Yousufzai's shooting, even using it to address women's rights in his country: "The people of Afghanistan ... see this attempt not only against (Yousufzai) but also against all Afghan girls," he said last week.
The closest Karzai has come this year to condemning violence against women in Afghanistan, as seen on the scale he has done with Yousufzai, was in July when gunmen publicly executed a 22-year-old woman, named Najiba, for alleged adultery, which prompted an international outcry. "If the president does not care about Afghan women in general, why does he suddenly care about Malala?" Ershad asked. "No one (here) ever seeks justice once the television cameras are turned off."
The United Arab Emirates provided the plane taking Yousufzai to Britain, while British officials said the Pakistani government was footing the bill for her lengthy treatment in Birmingham. Karzai has told Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that the attack was proof the two needed to tackle a common enemy, a move widely seen as an attempt to soothe ties between the neighbors amid bickering over Pakistani shelling across the countries' lawless border.
"WE BETTER UNDERSTAND MALALA'S SITUATION"
The shooting of Malala Yousafzai by the Taliban shocked the world and sparked rare public outrage against Islamist militants in Pakistan. So why has Pakistan's leadership been unable to seize the opportunity to take decisive action against Taliban sanctuaries? BBC World Service South Asia Editor Shahzeb Jillani explains.
For a while, the wave of revulsion seemed like a turning point for a country whose state institutions appear ambivalent towards rising extremism. Leading commentators urged the Pakistani leadership that this was the time to move decisively against the militants. But within days, the country's hardline Islamists staged a determined fight back.
Day-to-day bickering
The religious right accused its critics of "hijacking" the Malala incident to further their western, secular objectives - declaring it a ploy to justify a possible army offensive in the Taliban-controlled tribal region of North Waziristan. At the same time, the Taliban turned their guns on the Pakistani and foreign media.
Leading journalists were threatened for their extensive coverage of the wounded schoolgirl. Warnings were issued to news organisations that they would be attacked if they did not change their editorial stance. Soon afterwards, Malala was flown to Britain for specialised hospital treatment and her story started slipping down the news agenda of Pakistani news channels.
More BBC News - Malala Yousafzai: Has Pakistan missed the chance to move on militancy?
A Pakistani teenage activist shot in the head by the Taliban for demanding an education has left her beloved country for specialized medical treatment in Britain. The Taliban's attempted assassination last week of Malala Yousufzai, 14, has sparked outrage inside Pakistan and around the world, transforming the young blogger into an international symbol of defiance against the radical Islamist group that continues to wield influence in parts of Pakistan.
After Tuesday's attack, Malala was treated immediately by Pakistani doctors who later removed a bullet lodged in her neck. She was airlifted Monday to a hospital in Birmingham, England, that treats the country's war casualties. There she will be treated by neurosurgery specialists. Her recovery could take months, doctors said. Authorities in Pakistan said they are moving forward with their investigation into the attack. The country's interior minister, Rehman Malik, offered a $1 million bounty Monday for Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.
Most Pakistanis consider the Taliban murderous ideologues, and the young girl's willingness to risk her life to attend school -- despite the Taliban's opposition to education for girls-- has struck a nerve. One of the largest rallies supporting Malala took place Sunday in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, where men, women and their children held signs that said, "Shame on you, Taliban." Others held signs condemning terrorism.
Massive posters and billboards said, "Malala, our prayers are with you." At another rally in the capital of Islamabad, protesters held candles and prayed for the girl's recovery. Malala began gaining international attention in 2009 as the Taliban gained a foothold in her home region of Swat, a Taliban-heavy valley in northwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan. Malala's father operated one of the few schools that defied the Taliban by keeping its doors open to girls.
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