Malala Yousafzai, 14, was a well known equality activist in
Swat, Pakistan •She was shot on a bus full of pupils leaving her school in
Mingora •Miss Yousafzai and another victim are both in stable condition
The Taliban organisation who have taken responsibility for
the shooting have said they will target her again if she survives.
A young Pakistani girl famous for her championing of
education for girls was shot in the head in front of her classmates on her way
home from school today.
Malala Yousafzai was sitting a bus ready to leave the
grounds of her school in Mingora in Pakistan’s Swat Valley when a bearded man
entered the bus and shot her and another girl.
The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have taken
responsibility of for the assassination attempt and told a Pakistani newspaper
that they will target her again if she survives.
The teenager is widely known and respected for her work to
promote the schooling of girls and denouncing the atrocities committed by the
Taliban.
Miss Yousafzai is in critical but stable condition and her
wounds to her head and neck are not life threatening, Tariq Mohammad, a doctor
at the main hospital in Mingora confirmed. The other girl is also stable.
It was Tuesday afternoon when a man approached the school
bus and asked which one of the girls was Malala, Rasool Shah, Mingora police
chief said.
Malala was pointed out by a girl near her, but after the
young activist lied about her identity the gunman shot both of them.
A spokesman for the TTP told Pakistani newspaper The Express
Tribune that Malala was shot because she was ’secular-minded lady’ and that
this should serve as a warning for other young people like her.
Speaking from an undisclosed location, spokesman Ehsanullah
Ehsan said that she would not be safe is she survives this ordeal.
‘She was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban and she
was calling President Obama her idol.
‘She was young but she was promoting Western culture in
Pashtun areas.’
Malala, who won the Pakistani National Youth Peace Prize
last year, and her family has previously been threatened by the Talibans for
her campaigns.
The attack displayed the viciousness of Islamic militants in
Swat Valley, an area which has struggled with militant insurgent influence
despite military operations.
A recent court case highlights the issues facing young women
in Pakistan after the high court ordered a probe into an alleged barter of
seven girls to settle a blood feud in the Dera Bugti district of Baluchistan
province.
A tribal council of the prominent Bugi tribe ordered the
barter in early September, the district deputy commissioner, Saeed Faisal, told
the court. The ages of the girls have not been confirmed but local media
reported they were between 4 and 13 years old.
The tradition of families exchanging unmarried girls to
settle feuds is banned under Pakistani law but still practiced in the country's
more conservative, tribal areas.
The Nigerian Compass
No comments:
Post a Comment