A teenage Pakistani children’s rights activist was shot in the head on Tuesday in an assassination attempt as she boarded a school bus in the former Taliban stronghold of Swat, officials said.
Malala Yousafzai, 14, won international prominence for highlighting Taliban atrocities in Swat by blogging for the BBC.
She received the first ever national peace award from the Pakistani government last year and was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize by advocacy group KidsRights Foundation last year.
The shocking incident in broad daylight in Mingora, the main town of the once much-loved northwestern valley, raised serious questions about security more than three years after the army claimed to have crushed a Taliban insurgency.
Doctors at the Saidu Sharif Medical Complex in Mingora said that Malala was out of danger after the bullet penetrated her skull but missed her brain.
“A bullet struck her head, but the brain is safe,” said Doctor Taj Mohammed.
“She is out of danger,” he added.