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Subscribe to RSSGunmen hunted down young Malala Yousufzai at her school, shooting her in the head after she dared to criticize the extremists who are ravaging her country. NBC's Amna Nawaz reports.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- As a shocked Pakistan prayed for her recovery, Malala Yousufzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban for writing a blog about daily life in the war-torn Swat Valley, was still in a critical condition Wednesday after surgery to remove a bullet, her surgeon told NBC News.
Standing up for Pakistani school girl shot by Taliban
Doctors said her head, face and neck started swelling Tuesday night, prompting doctors to call an emergency meeting at 1 a.m. Wednesday (4 p.m. ET) when they decided to operate on her.
Surgery at the Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar started at 2 a.m. and was completed at 5 a.m. Wednesday (5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday ET). The doctors' panel treating Malala, which includes military and civilian staff, is led by senior neurosurgeon Mumtaz Khan.
Talking to NBC News after the surgery, Khan said Malala's brain had started swelling as its left portion was damaged by the bullet.
He said they operated on the damaged part of her brain and neck and removed the bullet from her body.
A short documentary profiling an 11-year-old Pakistani girl on the last day before the Taliban closed down her school. (By Adam B. Ellick)
"Malala is still in critical condition and had been shifted to the intensive care unit of the hospital, but I am optimistic and by the grace of Allah she will recover," Khan said.
A plane is on standby at Bacha Khan International airport to take her to the United Arab Emirates for treatment if doctors decide this is necessary.
Girl shot by Taliban to be sent abroad for treatment, Pakistani president says
Malala was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize in 2011 for a blog she wrote under a pseudonym for the BBC's Urdu-language news service. She started writing it when she was just 11.
She also won the National Peace Prize in Pakistan, was honored with a school named after her, and quickly became an outspoken critic of the Taliban in Pakistan and a public advocate for peace.
ISPR via AFP - Getty Images
Soldiers carry Malala Yousufzai, 14, at an army hospital following an attack by gunmen in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Oct. 9, 2012.
In her blog, Malala chronicled life in the Swat Valley under the brutal and oppressive rule of the local faction of the Pakistani Taliban, who carried out public floggings, hung dead bodies in the streets, and banned education for girls.
In early 2011, the militants had added Malala to their hit list.
Nosheen Abbas, of BBC Urdu, told NBC News that Malala was "very passionate about education, and she spoke about that a lot to me."
"It angered her deeply when girls' schools were closed, and she was affected, and her class fellows were affected. She would talk about (hiding school bags)," she said.
"She was so open about what they were doing to her city, and she was so vocal about it -- that is what made her so threatening," she added.
Abbas tried to explain why the Taliban had reacted so strongly.
"When it's coming from a child, it's innocent, it's honest, it's open, and I think that's what was so threatening," she said of the blog.
"I think that code of honor that used to exist where women and children, they weren't attacked, they were honored in a way never touched. I think that no longer exists, I think that is what it shows," she added.
Pakistani school girls pray for the recovery of Malala Yousufzai in Multan, Pakistan on Oct. 10.
Grief across Pakistan
Meantime, the shooting drew a huge outpouring of reaction across Pakistan. The front pages of national newspapers carried pictures of a bandaged and bloody Yousufzai being brought to hospital. "Hate targets hope" the Express Tribune said in a headline.
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.
"Pakistan's future belongs to Malala and brave young girls like her. History won't remember the cowards who tried to kill her at school," Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Twitter.
The attack was also condemned by many leaders of ethnic Pashtun tribes in northwest Pakistan.
"This attack is against Pashtun and Islamic practices," said Khurshid Kaka Ji, leader of a jirga, or tribal council, in Swat, a one-time tourist destination of peaks and meadows where the military has battled the Taliban intermittently since 2007.
"The security forces and police deployed should capture the attackers and punish them. If they do not catch these people, then the peace that Swat has gained through bloodshed will be shaken."
Reuters and NBC's Waj Khan contributed to this report from Islamabad.
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I see this and I think back to all those that argue the actions the U.S. took were not needed. To them I ask, do you still feel this way? Can you really be that naive? I hope not.
I have nothing against Islam. It is a religion based on peace and I respect that. Extremist unfortunately only see the revenge and retribution side and miss the true teachings because the truth doesn't suit their needs. For Taliban there is only one solution, Death. They don't understand anything else. Taliban are terrorist and oppress people to get their will as such there is only one fate acceptable, death. Arresting them does no good, putting them in prison does no good, Put a bullet in their head, that does good because it stops the loss of oxygen from them breathing.
Can't figure out why the left in America keeps ignoring what this part of the Muslin faith represents.
Because it's only a small PART of the Muslim faith. The Taliban is super-fundamentalist nonsense from the tribal regions. Primitive. Many people from the Muslim faith are very well-educated and socially advanced. What you are saying compares to saying that all Christians are represented by the actions of the people in Texas, Oklahoma, and Georgia who claim to be "Christians." Muslims have primitives. Christians have primitives.
But THEIR primitives seem to be on the upswing, or at least, have cowed the well-educated socially advanced Muslims with the threat of violence.
Do we have primitives? Yes. But our public schools don't teach a primitive religious mantra. Our leaders do not offer money to the families of suicide bombers.
If the majority of Muslims were as brave as this young woman. perhaps things would be different. But right now, they are losing their identity to the whack jobs.
You can't be much more educated then those 6 nuclear physicists who went over to talk to Osama bin Ladin years ago about making him a nuclear bomb or providing him with radioactive materials to create a dirty bomb so he could lay waste to all of us infidels.
Primitives! I am shocked and ashamed they are the Muslims. They know nothing of Islam!!! Keeping women away from education, this is what our Prophet (sws) taught us???!!! Killing others for speaking the truth???!! Away with you
Your religion of peace and love
What a brave person. Would we all have this kind of courage. Truly, a person for all seasons.
It is so difficult to understand how anyone can twist their faith into such hate. Nothing could justify this brutality.
This young lady is very brave, she is an amazing spirit who fights for basic human rights for women in her country, just by raising her voice. Those of you have turned this into a self centered political battle should be ashamed of yourselves, you are no better then then the politicians in this country(and by that comment I include both sides).
Whether we like it or not we are at war with an ideology that condones this behavior. It is not just the Taliban that will do this but numerous Islamic groups. These killers must be identified and eliminated or we will share the same fate as this poor girl. I pray that this young girl will recover and become a beacon of courage for this world.
agreed
critical!!!
how ironic is it the girl is in critical condition, but is the nation of pakistan???, i say no and that will be pakistans downfall, if this were to happen in the united states of america we would be out in numbers to protest such idiocies, capture and prosecute the idiots who killed the girl and jail or death to the murderers. but in pakistan is it ok to snub up your nose because shes a girl???, this is whats sad in the middle east. all should be created equal . did god say you are better than others? lol fools, you will certainly go to hell by gods hand with such thoughts
and we in the united states are called the devil? rofl not even close, all genders, race, religion nationality are all equal and this is what is our strength, and our power over the talidiots and al dumbasses
and i would certainly die for our cause of equality world wide and NOT SOME RELIGION WAR because we are equal in blood and mind and heart
we all did originate on mother earth oh ya 1 planet dammm
treat each other with respect and get off your high horse
and stop using gods name to justify murder
This is a great story for all you libs especially the Hollywood loud mouths that always rail against the U.S. Be very happy you live in the USA where free speech is protected and not in Pakistan or any other islamic country. I doubt any of you would have the courage this young lady has.
How silly. Nobody rails against the U.S. The only "railing" that anyone does is when some other American tries to deny equality to some other group in the country, violates someone else's rights--the rights that we should all be so "very happy" to have, or comes up with a dangerous policy. People "rail" when someone wants to turn our free country into a dictatorship.
HKDakota, I am tired of people like you calling all us liberals cowards. Although I did not support the war in Vietnam, I served as a Marine doing it. What service were you in? As for this story, we need to bring this girl and her family to the US. As for the war in Afghanistan, we need to get out now. From Alexander the Great to Soviet Russia and now us, no one has ever conquered Afghanistan. All they have ever done is lose lives over there. Only nations who don't want the Taliban in their country can keep them out. We can only create more Taliban by being there.
Blackbelt you are totally right, except we do not wish to conquer Afghanistan, all we ever wanted was for Afghanistan not provide bases for the Ronald Reagan freedom fighters. We seem to have forgotten who originated and built the Taliban. Remember the Soviets, and how there wealth was bleed into Afghanistan and what a success it was for our side until 9/11; now whose wealth is being drained?
when the hearts and minds of fourteen year olds are being won over by the ideals of a country on the other side of the globe ,,, the local governments and religious heads have allready lost control . they stupidly do this kind of thing to instill fear in the people but it only serves to push them away from following the present leadership... soon they will realize they are being chased not followed
Does this surprise me NOT really there is NO such thing of FREEDOM OF SPEECH there so they do anything to anyone to stop the truth from coming out no matter who might be saying it.
These people are animals and I hate even saying this because this insults animals because they don't kill just because they kill to survive.
Does this surprise me NOT in the least they will do anything to anyone to keep the truth from coming out no matter what it takes.
All of these people are animals and I hate to say they are animals because to me that insults animals because they kill to survive not just because they feel like killing and that is a fact but that is the only word that describes these horrible people.
I feel sure that the villagers would love to stand up, fight back, and remove the taliban...only one little problem, they are not trained killers, and don't have weapons. They are living in fear and need an army to defeat these trained monsters. The taliban is world wide, killing as they want to, and as the five who, after 16 years, England! just finally were released to the US to stand trial for their crimes. They need to have mercenaries track them down and destroy them, as they are a plague on the earth.
How can you trust the doctors who are treating her...could they be taliban or sympathizers, who will finish the job? Is there any place on earth where she can live in safety from them trying again to kill her...are any of us safe?
I agree with you mudrake2. I know We're supposed to love our enemies but this kind of barbaric behavior makes it a little difficult to love them. The best I can do is consider them inconsequencial. They are meaningless to me. I neither love them nor hate them. They do not matter and ther exhistance has no meaning.
My heart goes out to that beautiful, brave child. She is what every uman should be. I fear this type of event is what we may be looking forward to in the USA if the religious fundamentalists take over our government. We're heading in that direction. Just listen to the tea party and the wacko preachers of all faiths spewing hate with every word they say.
My heart goes out to that beautiful, brave child. She is what every human should be. I fear this type of event is what we may be looking forward to in the USA if the religious fundamentalists take over our government. We're heading in that direction. Just listen to the tea party and the wacko preachers of all faiths spewing hate with every word they say.
Tragic. So much for the kinder, gentler Taliban.
The citizens of that country will ultimately decide who rules them. This will not help the Taliban of course in the eys of many of their fellow country men but it is up to them to rise up and defeat these criminals. We can help but until the people have enough of this and kill the killers and terrorists..we get no where. Oh, and you right wing idiots who are trying to make this an issue in the election...you are as bad as the shooters to be honest..taking advantage of this to attack Obama?? You are idiots and of course if we have sunspots today, it will be Obama's fault. Very troubling you can not see the basic horror of this and leave it at that...
The people of that country will not decide who leads them. They are not from that country, they are from their littleclans. They have no allegiance to their country. Their country is and always will be led by opportunists and despots.
Hey Taliban you are all a bunch of COWARDS ! and the Pakistani government should be ashamed this child only speaks the truth and the so called men who run her county can neither protect her or her country from the Taliban.
Pretty sad that it takes a child to do what adults should do. This is what a true patriot looks like, someone who puts their life on the line to improve their fellow citizens lives. Over here, we think patriotism means who can put down the members of the opposing party the most. This little girl outshines us all.
The Taliban who did this are disgusting cowards and Muslims who don't denounce them are also guilty of this crime.
That will teah her. If she was wrapped up in a Bhurka they would not have been able to identify her to know which one to shoot.
Another cowardly antic from theTaliban.
Expecting honor from the Taliban is like expecting the proverbial blood from a turnip. This young woman has more courage and honor than the entire cabal of Taliban thugs could ever hope to have. That's why they view her as such a threat. May God bless her.