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Pakistani schoolgirl shot by Taliban moved to army HQ hospital
By Jibran Ahmad
PESHAWAR, Pakistan | Thu Oct 11, 2012 5:37pm EDT
(Reuters) - A Pakistani schoolgirl fighting for her life after being shot by the Taliban for campaigning for education rights was transferred on Thursday from a hospital in a province that is a militant haven to a specialist hospital in the army garrison town of Rawalpindi.
Malala Yousufzai, 14, was unconscious in critical condition after gunmen shot her in the head and neck as she left school on Tuesday, but doctors said she had moved her arms and legs slightly the night before.
Pakistani surgeons removed a bullet on Wednesday from Yousufzai who was shot by the Taliban for speaking out against the militants and promoting education for girls.
Her courage made her a national hero. The shooting has drawn condemnation from world leaders and many Pakistanis.
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 father, Ziauddin Yousufzai, who runs a girls' school, said his daughter had defied threats for years, believing the good work she was doing for her community was her best protection.
A Reuters correspondent watched as she was moved from an army hospital in the regional capital of Peshawar to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi to help her treatment.
"Pray for her," her distraught uncle, Faiz Mohammad, said before the ambulance left the hospital.
A husband-and-wife team of two British doctors who were attending a seminar in Pakistan at the time of the attack on Thursday joined local surgeons in treating Yousufzai.
She was shot with two other girls on Tuesday as she left school in Swat, northwest of Islamabad. One of the girls is out of danger and the other remains in critical condition.
A Taliban spokesman said Yousufzai was targeted for trying to spread Western culture and that they would try to kill her again if she survived.
'BARBARIC AND COWARDLY'
Authorities had identified her attackers, said regional governor Masood Kausar. The local government has posted a 10 million rupee ($104,657) reward for their capture.
"The security agencies are closely working with each other and they have a lot of information about the perpetrators. We hope our security agencies will soon capture them and bring to justice," he said.
The attack outraged many in Pakistan, with small, impromptu rallies held in Yousufzai's support in many cities. Schools had also closed across Swat in protest over the shooting and a small demonstration was held in her hometown of Mingora.
Pakistan's president, prime minister, and heads of various opposition parties joined human rights group Amnesty International and the United Nations in condemning the attack.
White House press secretary Jay Carney called the shooting an "outrageous attack" and a reminder of the need to promote girls' rights worldwide.
"Malala's courage and determination as a champion for girls' education and opportunity stands in stark contrast to the cowards who seek to silence her," he said in a statement marking the First International Day of the Girl.
"Like so many Pakistanis and people of goodwill around the world, the American people are shocked by this deplorable shooting of a girl who was targeted because she dared to attend school," he said.
Yousufzai had spent the last three years campaigning for girls' education after the Taliban shut down girls' schools. She received Pakistan's highest civilian award but also a number of death threats.
In 2009, the army pushed the Taliban out of her hometown, but the attack showed the militia's ability to strike even inside heavily patrolled towns.
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Paul Simao)
Pakistani schoolgirl shot by Taliban sent to UK for treatment
By Sheree Sardar
ISLAMABAD | Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:33am EDT
(Reuters) - The Pakistani schoolgirl shot by Taliban gunmen for pushing for girls to be educated has been sent to the United Kingdom for medical treatment, a military spokesman said on Monday.
The spokesman said in a statement that 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai, whose shooting has drawn widespread condemnation, will require prolonged care to fully recover physically and psychologically.
An air ambulance transporting Yousufzai, provided by the United Arab Emirates, had departed from Islamabad and was heading for the United Kingdom, said the spokesman.
"The panel of doctors recommended that Malala be shifted abroad to a UK center which has the capability to provide integrated care to children who have sustained severe injury," said the spokesman in a statement.
An attack by about 50 militants on a police outpost near the large northwestern city of Peshawar on Sunday night highlighted Pakistan's struggle to contain the Taliban and its allies. At least six policemen were killed.
Yousufzai, a cheerful schoolgirl who had wanted to become a doctor before agreeing to her father's wishes that she strive to be a politician, has become a potent symbol of resistance against the Taliban's efforts to deprive girls of an education.
Pakistanis have held some protests and candlelight vigils but most government officials have refrained from publicly criticising the Taliban by name over the attack, in what critics say is a lack of resolve against extremism.
Opponents of Pakistan's government and military say the shooting is another example of the state's failure to tackle militancy, the biggest threat to the stability of the nuclear-armed South Asian country.
The shooting of Yousufzai was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the young girl against one of Pakistan's most ruthless Taliban commanders, Maulana Fazlullah.
Fazlullah and his faction of the Pakistani Taliban took over Yusufzai's native Swat Valley in 2009 after reaching an agreement with the government which gave them de facto control of the former tourist spot.
Fazlullah imposed the Taliban's austere version of Islam there, blowing up girls' schools and publicly executing those deemed immoral. The army later launched a major offensive in Swat, forcing many Taliban fighters to flee.
MELTED AWAY
Fazlullah's men simply melted away across the porous border to Afghanistan. Earlier this year, they kidnapped and beheaded 17 Pakistani soldiers in one of several cross-border raids that have become a new security headache for Pakistan.
Yousufzai continued speaking out despite the danger. As her fame grew, Fazlullah tried everything he could to silence her. The Taliban published death threats in the newspapers and slipped them under her door. But she ignored them.
The Taliban say that's why they sent assassins, despite a tribal code forbidding the killing of women.
Taliban sources said Fazlullah ordered two men specialising in high-profile assassinations to kill Yousufzai.
Pakistan's Taliban, who are linked to al Qaeda, has been fighting for years to topple the U.S.-backed government and establish the kind of rule they imposed in Swat.
The United States and other Western allies who give Pakistan billions of dollars in aid have been pushing Islamabad to crack down harder on the Taliban, al Qaeda and other groups that have formed a complex web of militancy.
Pakistan says Western criticism of its performance is unjustified, and that it has sacrificed more than any other country that joined the U.S. war on militancy after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed.
The attack on Yousufzai has angered many Pakistanis, raising questions over whether the incident could sharply turn public opinion against the militants and give the military a big edge.
But many experts argue the war on militancy can only be won if the government strengthens the fragile economy and creates jobs to ensure that fewer people join radical groups who exploit disillusionment with the state.
The Taliban struck again on Sunday night, attacking the police outpost near Peshawar with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire. Security officials said at least six policemen were killed, including two who were beheaded.
Seven policemen are still missing and presumed kidnapped. Several police cars and an armoured vehicle were torched.
The Taliban has been blamed for many suicide bombings across Pakistan and have also staged sophisticated, high-profile attacks on the military, one of the biggest in the world.
Pakistan's interior minister said police had despatched guards to protect journalists who had been threatened by Taliban militants angered by coverage of Yousufzai's case.
The Taliban, based mostly in the unruly ethnic Pashtun tribal areas near the Afghan border, have said they would now try to kill her father, a headmaster of a girls' school in Swat.
(Additional reporting by Mubasher Bukhari in ISLAMABAD and Jibran Ahmad in PESHAWAR; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Taliban says its attack on Pakistani schoolgirl justified
ISLAMABAD | Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:16am EDT
(Reuters) - Taliban insurgents said on Tuesday that the Pakistani schoolgirl its gunmen shot in the head deserved to die because she had spoken out against the group and praised U.S. President Barack Obama.
Malala Yousufzai, 14, was flown to Britain on Monday, where doctors said she has every chance of making a "good recovery".
The attack on Yousufzai, who had been advocating education for girls, drew widespread condemnation.
Pakistani surgeons removed a bullet from near her spinal cord during a three-hour operation the day after the attack last week, but she now needs intensive specialist follow-up care.
Authorities have said they have made several arrests in connection with the case but have given no details.
Pakistan's Taliban described Yousufzai as a "spy of the West".
"For this espionage, infidels gave her awards and rewards. And Islam orders killing of those who are spying for enemies," the group said in a statement.
"She used to propagate against mujahideen (holy warriors) to defame (the) Taliban. The Quran says that people propagating against Islam and Islamic forces would be killed.
"We targeted her because she would speak against the Taliban while sitting with shameless strangers and idealized the biggest enemy of Islam, Barack Obama."
Yousufzai, a cheerful schoolgirl who had wanted to become a doctor before agreeing to her father's wishes that she strive to be a politician, has become a potent symbol of resistance against the Taliban's efforts to deprive girls of an education.
Pakistanis have held some protests and candlelight vigils but most government officials have refrained from publicly criticizing the Taliban by name over the attack, in what critics say is a lack of resolve against extremism.
"We did not attack her for raising voice for education. We targeted her for opposing mujahideen and their war," said the Taliban. "Shariah (Islamic law) says that even a child can be killed if he is propagating against Islam."
Malala Yousufzai is seen recuperating at the The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham in this handout photograph released October 19, 2012. Malala, a Pakistani girl shot in the head by Taliban gunmen is "not out of the woods" but is doing well and has been able to stand for the first time with some help, doctors at the British hospital treating her said on Friday. REUTERS/Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham/Handout
