Taliban shoot Pakistani schoolgirl for advocating girls' rights

A Pakistani schoolgirl known for her fight for human rights, Malala Yousufzai, seriously wounded after being shot by Taliban gunmen while on her way to home on Tuesday, October 9 in the Swat valley's main town of Mingora in north-west Pakistan according to local authorities, reports Reuters.

"She has received two bullets wounds, one in her neck," "She is in critical condition and the doctors are doing their best to save her." said senior police official Gul Afzal Afridi.

The 14-year-old who won Pakistan's first National Peace Award (NPA) which created by the government , was shot with two other girls when a Taliban gunman stopped and entered their school van and opened fire according to local sources.

“Two bearded armed men stopped our school van and asked for Malala and opened fire from behind the van,” an injured girl named Shazia said from the hospital .

While BBC Urdu reports that gunmen opened fire on girls including Malala when they were about to board a van or bus.

Later, Taliban spokesman 'Ehsanullah Ehsan' claimed by telephone responsibility for the shooting saying "She was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban and she was calling President Obama her idol," adding "She was young but she was promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas," reports Reuters.

The seventh-grader who was shot in the back side of her neck rushed to the Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital in Mingora before being shifted through a helicopter to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Peshawar according to the media wing of the Pakistan Army (ISPR).

According to Tariq Mohammad, a doctor at Saidu Sharif hospital , Yousafzai has non-life-threatening .

Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf response to the attack saying “We have to fight the mindset that is involved in this. We have to condemn it,” he adding “Malala is like my daughter and yours too. If that mindset prevails, then whose daughter would be safe.”

Malala Yousafzai known for writing her diary when she was only 11 years old on BBC Urdu service as she exposed the Atrocities committed against girls to force girls to stay at home by the Taliban militants when they took hold of the Swat Valley in 2007until they were driven out during a major offensive by Pakistani army in 2009 according to BBC.

Sources :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19882799

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/10/09/pakistan-malala-yousufzai-activist-shot-children.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/09/us-pakistan-schoolgirl-idUSBRE8980EB20121009

http://www.thenewstribe.com/2012/10/09/malala-yousufzai-shifted-to-cmh-peshawar-ispr/#.UHQnnK5QPAM