Pakistani girl shot by Taliban sent to UK for treatment
October 15, 2012 - Pakistan airlifted a 14-year-old girl who was shot and seriously
wounded by the Taliban to the United Kingdom for treatment on Monday, a move that
will give her access to the specialized medical care she needs to recover and also
protect her from follow-up attacks threatened by the militants. The attack on Malala
Yousufzai as she was returning home from school in Pakistan's northwest last Tuesday
has horrified people both across the country and abroad. It has also sparked hope
the government would respond by intensifying its fight against the Taliban and their
allies. Malala will be treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham in central
England, a center which has specialized in the treatment of troops wounded in Afghanistan,
said British Prime Minister David Cameron's office. Malala was targeted by the Taliban
for promoting girls' education and criticizing the militant group. Two of her classmates
were also wounded when the Taliban fired on the schoolbus they were in while returning
home. The Taliban said they attacked Malala because she was promoting “Western thinking”
and have threatened to target her again until she is killed. Malala was flown out
of Pakistan on Monday morning in a specially equipped air ambulance provided by the
United Arab Emirates, said the Pakistani military, which has been treating the young
girl at one of its hospitals. A panel of doctors recommended that Malala be shifted
to a center in the United Kingdom that has the ability to provide “integrated”' care
to children who have sustained severe injuries, said a military statement. Malala
wrote about the Taliban practices in a blog for the BBC under a pseudonym when she
was just 11. After the Taliban were pushed out of the Swat Valley in 2009 by the Pakistani
military, she became even more outspoken in advocating for girls' education. She
appeared frequently in the media and was given one of the country's highest honors
for civilians for her bravery.