Taliban shoot 14yr old girl in the Head in Pakistan

12 October 2012 Last updated at 15:36
Malala Yousafzai: Pakistan observes day of prayer



The BBC's Aleem Maqbool visits the scene of Malala's shooting in the town of Mingora

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People in Pakistan have been observing a day of prayer for the recovery of a 14-year-old girl shot in the head by Taliban gunmen.

Malala Yousafzai was transferred to a military hospital in Rawalpindi on Thursday. Doctors say her progress over the next few days will be "critical".

The girl wrote a diary about suffering under the Taliban and was accused by them of "promoting secularism".

Police said they had arrested four people in connection with the attack.

They were among about 100 people rounded up this week, most of whom were later released on bail.

The suspected mastermind of the attack remains at large.

Meanwhile, Pakistani officials said they had intercepted a telephone conversation suggesting Taliban militants were planning attacks against the media over their coverage of the shooting. The Taliban had earlier said they would target Malala Yousafzai again.

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At the scene


Amber Rahim Shamsi BBC Urdu Service

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Here at the hospital in Rawalpindi the security is extremely tight. They do not let anyone enter the wing where Malala is, and a few hours before Prime Minister Raja Pervaz Ashraf's visit, they did not even allow the families of other patients to go in. They didn't let a woman with a bouquet for Malala get close.

There are a lot of journalists outside the hospital, but the family is keeping away from the media. The doctors who are attending Malala are not picking up the phone anymore.

The press conference with the prime minister was packed with journalists. Everyone was aware of the new threat the Taliban made, but no-one seemed to be afraid of it.

Local officials have offered a 10m rupee ($105,000; £66,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the attackers.

The shooting has prompted outrage and protests across Pakistan.

On Friday, school children dedicated prayers to her recovery in morning assemblies and she was also remembered during weekly prayers at mosques across the country.

Many prayer leaders condemned the attack, including the chief cleric of Pakistan's largest mosque, Shahi Masjid, in Lahore. He called the young activist an "ambassador of peace and knowledge'".

Schools in the Swat Valley closed on Wednesday - the day after the shooting - in protest at the attack. Rallies have also been held in Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Multan as well as in Malala's hometown of Mingora.

The attack has also drawn widespread international condemnation.
'Critical' hours
Malala Yousafzai was being treated in an intensive care unit in Peshawar before doctors decided to move her to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology critical care unit in Rawalpindi.

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“Start Quote

I felt hurt on opening my wardrobe and seeing my uniform, school bag and geometry box. Boys' schools are opening tomorrow. But the Taliban have banned girls' education. ”

End Quote Malala Yousafzai Diary entry, 8 February 2009

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"Malala's condition is satisfactory, praise be to God, but the next 24 to 36 hours are critical," military spokesman Maj Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa told reporters at a briefing.

"Today is the sacred day of Friday and the entire nation is praying for her health. I pray to Allah that He bestows her with good health very soon," he is quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

The teenager was attacked on Tuesday as she was returning home from school in Mingora in north-western Swat.

Two armed men, on foot, stopped a van packed with about a dozen schoolgirls in a congested area of the town. One of them got into the van and asked which of the girls was Malala Yousafzai before he fired three shots, hitting Malala in the head and injuring two others.

Prime Minister Raja Pervaz Ashraf visited Malala Yousafzai on Friday, the latest politician to do so, and has asked other political leaders to join him in showing solidarity.




Malala Yousafzai spoke to the BBC in November 2011

Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who visited Malala in hospital in Peshawar earlier in the week, said it was time to "stand up to fight the propagators of such barbaric mindset and their sympathisers".

Malala Yousafzai first gained attention aged 11, when she started writing a diary for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban.

Using the pen-name Gul Makai, she wrote about suffering caused by militants who had taken control of the Swat Valley in 2007 and ordered girls' schools to close.

The Taliban were ousted from Swat in 2009, but her family said they had regularly received death threats.

Taliban threat worries Pakistan media


The Pakistani media almost universally condemned the Taliban's shooting of Malala
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Pakistan's media have expressed alarm at Taliban threats to target journalists after critical coverage of the shooting of Malala Yousufzai.

The 14-year-old education campaigner was seriously wounded as she returned home from school in the Swat valley.

The Pakistani Taliban said it had shot her for "promoting secularism".

The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) said Taliban threats directed at the media were aimed at curbing the freedom of the press.

Officials say the threats were uncovered in an intercepted phone call from a Pakistani Taliban leader.

In the call, intercepted by Pakistan's intelligence agencies, Hakeemullah Mehsud, chief of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), reportedly gave his subordinate "special directions" to attack the media in cities including Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi and the capital Islamabad.

The APNS said the Taliban was trying to "browbeat the voice of the people".

The Pakistan Press Foundation said religious scholars who publicly denounced the shooting had also been alerted by the government.

It said the government was taking the TPP threat seriously.

The BBC says it has "taken appropriate steps to protect its staff and operations in Pakistan" following the threats to media organisations.

"We are monitoring the situation and will take any necessary action to protect our staff. We continue to broadcast to Pakistan," a BBC statement said.

Deadliest country

The attack on Malala, in which two other schoolgirls were wounded, was overwhelmingly condemned in Pakistan. Groups that have previously expressed some sympathy for the Taliban's cause largely denounced the targeting of children.

The strength of reaction has put pressure on the government to take more action to tackle the insurgency.

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• Portrait of the girl blogger
  
• Viewpoint: Pandering to extremists
  

Pakistani media quoted Taliban sources as saying they were angered by the level of attention that the attempted murder had received and felt the coverage was biased.

Malala was flown to the UK on Monday for specialist treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where her condition is described as stable.

The teenager is widely known as a campaigner for girls' education in Pakistan. In early 2009 she wrote an anonymous diary for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban, who, after taking over the Swat valley in 2007, banned all girls from attending school.

Officials in her province have issued a 10m rupee ($105,000; £66,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the gunmen, while Interior Minister Rehman Malik has offered a $1m reward for the capture of Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Eshan.

Pakistan was named as the deadliest country for journalists in 2011 for a second year running, by campaign group Reporters Without Borders, which said that 10 journalists had been killed.

Malala Shooting: Police Name Prime Suspect


A 23-year-old chemistry student is linked to the shooting of teenage anti-Taliban activist Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan.


8:46am UK, Thursday 25 October 2012

Khan’s mother, brother and fiancee have also been arrested

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Police have named the prime suspect in connection with the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, the teenage activist who spoke out against the Taliban.

Detectives are attempting to track down 23-year-old Atta Ullah Khan, a chemistry student from the Swat district where Malala was attacked.

Khan’s mother, brother, and fiancee have been arrested, as well as six other men.

The suspect's relatives are not accused of involvement, a senior police official is reported to have said.
Malala is being treated at a hospital in Birmingham
Alam Zeb, the principal at Jahanzeb College where Khan is studying for a physics degree, said Khan had given school officials three or four dates of birth.

He condemned the attack and said he was surprised to hear that a former student may have been involved.

The 15-year-old girl became a symbol of courage after being shot in the head by the Taliban earlier this month for demanding education for girls.

She is now being treated in Britain, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
The teenager is a high-profile campaigner against the Taliban
The hospital has said she continues to make steady progress and is in a stable condition after she was admitted a week ago following initial treatment in Pakistan.

She had been able to stand with help for the first time in hospital and was "communicating very freely", according to Dr Dave Rosser, medical director of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.

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The girl is still in Hospital recovering and was visited today by the Palestinian President, William Hague, and other Foreign Ministers and the President has said he will ensure that children receive an education.

That is good news and it took a brave young girl to bring this about. I hope she makes a full recovery.

Malala's father appointed United Nations adviser on education


Gordon Brown has taken on Malala Yousafzai's father as a special adviser on education, as part of a campaign to get millions more girls into school around the world.








Malala Yousufzai with her father Ziauddin and her two younger brothers Atal Khan (R) and Khushal Khan (L) Photo: PA






By Rob Crilly, Islamabad

9:03AM GMT 10 Dec 2012





The 15-year-old schoolgirl is recovering in a British hospital from a Taliban attack in October which horrified the world and exposed the struggle many girls face in completing their education in Pakistan.


She had angered extremists with a diary of Taliban abuses published by the BBC and for her campaign to get more girls to go to school.


Mr Brown, who is the United Nations' Special Envoy for Global Education, said her father, Ziauddin, was perfect for the new role.


"His unique qualities - a teacher and headteacher as well as a parent who has had to struggle against opposition to girls' education and the closing of schools - makes him ideally suited to leading in our educational effort to get all to school," he wrote for the Huffington Post.


Mr Brown made the announcement ahead of an education summit in Paris on Monday. He is due to set out a plan to help the 32 million girls around the world who do not go to primary school.



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His "Malala Plan" will aim to get all girls into school around the world by the end of 2015.

He wrote: "With today's announcements we show that as a result of Malala's courage and her inspiration the whole world is now on a bolder and more urgent path for change. Before she was shot Malala was advocating the cause of girls' education, faced with a Taliban that had closed down and destroyed 600 schools."

Mr Yousafzai has been given a job by the Pakistan High Commission in London to help his family live in the UK during a recovery and rehabilitation process that could take up to two years.

Education campaigners have turned Malala into a poster girl for their work, citing her as an example to millions.

However, the global effort has caused unease in Malala's hometown of Mingora, where residents continue to live with the fear of Taliban attacks.

Last week, one of Malala's friends, Kainat Riaz who was also injured in the shooting, said she was worried about being singled out for reprisals if a British fundraiser went ahead with plans for schools built in her name.

And her father revealed that neighbours had asked them to move away until tension eased.