Accessibility links

Breaking News

Pakistani Girl Taliban Targeted in 'Satisfactory' Condition


An activist from non-governmental organization Insani Haqooq Ittihad holds a picture of Malala Yousufzai during a demonstration in Islamabad, October 10, 2012.
An activist from non-governmental organization Insani Haqooq Ittihad holds a picture of Malala Yousufzai during a demonstration in Islamabad, October 10, 2012.
A Pakistani military spokesman say the 14-year-old schoolgirl who was shot this week by the Taliban is in "satisfactory" condition.

Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa said Friday the next few days will be critical in the recovery of Malala Yousafzai who remains unconscious and on a ventilator.

She was shot in the head and neck Tuesday as she left school in the northwestern Swat Valley. The Taliban said the child was targeted for being pro-West.

Yousafzai was airlifted from a hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, the country's top military hospital in Rawalpindi. Doctors have said Yousafzai has a 70 percent chance of surviving.

Pakistani officials say Yousufzai's attackers have been identified and a $100,000 reward has been offered for information leading to their arrest. The attack has drawn domestic and international condemnation.

Yousufzai is internationally recognized for documenting Taliban atrocities in the area near her home. She wrote under a pseudonym - Gul Makai - in a blog published by the BBC.

In her blog, Yousufzai described life under the Taliban in 2008 and 2009, when militants carried out beheadings and other violence in the territory they controlled - large areas of the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG