PESHAWAR: Taliban militants on Tuesday shot and seriously injured teenage peace campaigner and National Peace Award winner Malala Yousafzai along with two other girls in the jurisdiction of the Saidu Sharif Police Station in Swat district, Dispatch News Desk (DND) reported on 09 October, 2012.
The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack on Malala Yousafzai. TTP spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan told journalists from an undisclosed location that Malala was spreading anti-Taliban “secular thoughts” among the youth of the area. He said Malala would not be spared if she survived. “She was against the Taliban and that is the reason our men targeted her.”
Deputy Inspector General of Police, Malakand Range, Akhtar Hayat Khan, and District Police Officer (DPO) Swat Rasool Shah said that Malala Yousafzai was returning home along with other girls in a van (PSM-2719) from school when two gunmen intercepted and inquired about her.
They said the gunmen opened fire after identifying her. She and two other girls sustained bullet injuries in the brazen and cowardly attack. She was shot in the head and was taken to the Saidu Sharif Hospital from where she was flown to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Peshawar in a military helicopter.
The doctors treating the young Malala after conducting different tests said that the next three to four days were crucial for her. Subsequently though, a medical board of doctors recommended flying the 14-year-old Malala abroad for specialised treatment to save her life.
“Her condition is out of danger,” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour told the media outside the CMH Peshawar.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Mian Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan People’s Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf head Imran Khan, Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hassan, Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Masood Kausar, Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti and other leaders condemned the attack on Malala Yousafzai.
DND