KARACHI, PAKISTAN — Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old campaigner for human rights, was shot in the head by Taliban militants on Tuesday while she was returning home from school in a van in the Swat area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province.

Today, the entire nation is in shock. Everyone is condemning the Taliban and praying for Malala. She has become a role model for her country’s young generation. She has won.
Malala is the victim of Talibanization, the radical mind-set spawned from a theocratic and obscurantist interpretation of Islam. Talibanization is about forcefully imposing a theocratic agenda on the people. It is about radicalizing them. It is about creating more and more suicide-bomb squads in the name of jihad against liberals and moderates, Muslims and non-Muslims. The attack on Malala liberated many shackled and Talibanized minds. She has won.
Malala was advocating the ideology of love. She was a young ambassador of peace. By attacking her, the Taliban attempted to warn all the youngsters not to follow her ideology. But after the attack, Malala’s followers have multiplied across the country. She has won.
The attack exposed the brutal face of the Taliban. It also raises questions about even holding talks with a group that plays with the lives of innocent citizens and does not spare anyone — it even targets kids.
There is not just one Malala but thousands of Malalas who have fallen victim to this ideology of hate. The Taliban, projecting a campaign against polio as a cover for espionage, has put hundreds of thousands of children at risk by banning polio vaccinations in its strongholds in North and South Waziristan.
In their former stronghold of Swat, the Taliban banned education for girls, condemned the state judicial system and ran a parallel justice system until 2009, when Islamabad launched a full-fledged military operation to quell a Taliban-led insurgency there. While the Taliban were attacking and destroying girls’ schools, Malala posted her diary on the BBC’s Web site, exposing the Taliban’s atrocities against women, its excesses, and its obscurantist approach to interpretation of Islamic laws. Last year, she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize by the advocacy group Kids Rights Foundation. She has won.
But the Pakistan Taliban’s version of Islam and the agenda they want to forcibly impose remains a threat. The group deems democratic elections part of the “secular” system and has announced that any political leader who plans to contest elections will be attacked if he visits the tribal areas.
The Taliban’s declaration that the democratic system in Pakistan is un-Islamic and its criticism of Imran Khan, the former Pakistani cricketer-turned politician, as a liberal infidel exposes the peril of violent radicalism that surrounds Pakistan. Yet Khan, the leader of the Tehreek-e-Insaf, or the Movement for Justice, is widely criticized for being “too soft” on the Taliban. To protest drone strikes, he recently led a peace march to the border of South Waziristan, where it was halted by the Pakistan military for security reasons. Instead of appreciating his move, the Taliban condemned his “liberal” politics and threatened to kill him.
The Pakistan Taliban recently distributed pamphlets in the markets in tribal areas threatening shopkeepers who sell mobile phones to give up that business or face dire consequences. Mobile-phone dealers were told to stop uploading songs, movies and pictures, which the Taliban says promote “un-Islamic acts.”
The Pakistan Taliban’s plan to remake our nuclear-armed country according to its vision of an Islamic state raises international concerns about proliferating Islamist violence and its threat to regional and world stability. But the attack on Malala revived and resurrected the true Islamic ideology of peace across the country. She has won.
Malala was fighting for the right to education — the highest long-term investment in containing Talibanization. Only education can bring about a change in the radical mind-set. Malala has become a beacon of light. She has won.

Syed Fazl-e-Haider is a development analyst in Pakistan and a columnist for Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.

'We condemn Malala attack, but who will condemn drone strikes?'

By Web Desk
Published: October 12, 2012
JUI-F chief says attack on Malala is not part of Pukhtoon culture. PHOTO: PPI/FILE

ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazal group chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that he condemns the attack on young Malala Yousufzai, but who will protest the deaths caused by drone strikes, Express News reported on Friday.

Speaking to the media at the Islamabad airport, Rehman said that sometimes Salala and sometimes Malala were being made the pretext to eliminate a section of society and he condemns that strongly.
Fazlur Rehman was quick to point blame at erroneous policies of the government, which according to Rehman had resulted in the deaths of over 40,000 Pakistanis.
Rehman also hit out at some people who were condemning the attack on Malala, saying that the hands of such people were “soaked with blood” since they never condemn when a mosque is bombed.
He added that the attack on the young girl from Swat was condemnable, and termed it as an act of oppression which finds no precedent in Pushtun tradition.

Madonna dedicates song to Malala

By Web Desk
Published: October 12, 2012
Madonna told audience the incident made her cry. PHOTO: AFP / FILE
Pop star Madonna, who has voiced her political and social views through the MDNA tour, most recently took on the Taliban when she dedicated a song to Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old who was targeted by the militant group, reports aol.com.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Madonna told her audience that the incident made her cry.
“The 14-year-old schoolgirl who wrote a blog about going to school. The Taliban stopped her bus and shot her. Do you realize how sick that is?” she said and shouted: “Support education! Support women!”.
Later, Madonna performed an onstage striptease to reveal “Malala” stenciled across her back and saying “this song is for you, Malala”, she began singing Human Nature.
Malala remains on the ventilator with specialists saying the following 36 to 48 hours were critical for her.
Madonna has previously shown her support for US President Barack Obama and Russian punk band Pussy Riot during performances of the MDNA tour.

Altaf advises people to only pray behind leaders condemning Malala attack

By Web Desk
Published: October 12, 2012
Hussain urges citizens and the country to submit details of all muftis and ulemas in their localities within a week. PHOTO: MQM

Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain appealed to the people of Pakistan belonging to different schools of thought to refrain from offering prayers behind ulemas who do not condemn the attack on Malala Yousufzai by the Taliban and advised them to offer prayers in the mosques where the ulemas condemned the attack.
Hussain also requested ulemas belonging to different schools of thought to denounce the attack on Malala and her fellow students during congregational prayers on Friday.

He asked the congregations to offer special prayers for Malala’s well-being and health and for the other students who were injured in the attack.
The MQM chief praised ulemas belonging to Muttahida Bainul Muslimeen Forum and others for showing courage and condemning the incident. He asked them to unite for saving the country.
DawnNews reported that Hussain urged all office bearers, party workers and peace loving citizens of Pakistan to submit the details of all muftis and ulemas in their localities within a week – irrespective of the sect they belong to – to the party’s sector offices situated near their residence.
He said that the details of all religious leaders holding different positions and titles such as mufti, imam, aalim and khatib, collected from all sectors will be consolidated at MQM headquarters, Nine Zero.
Hussain further said that the names of the people who refuse to give the information should be noted down so that the government itself could obtain the details.

'Radio Mullah' sent hit squad after Malala Yousafzai

By Reuters
Published: October 12, 2012
We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she wouldn't stop (speaking against us), say Swat Taliban. ILLUSTRATION: JAMAL KHURSHID
PESHAWAR: One of the Taliban’s most feared commanders, Maulana Fazlullah, carefully briefed two killers from his special hit squad on their next target.
The gunmen weren’t going after any army officer, politician or Western diplomat. Their target was a 14-year-old schoolgirl who had angered the Taliban by speaking out for “Western”-style girls’ education.
Tuesday’s shooting of Malala Yousafzai was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the fearless, smiling young girl against one of Pakistan’s most ruthless Taliban commanders.
Their story began in 2009, when Fazlullah, known as Radio Mullah for his fiery radio broadcasts, took over Swat Valley,
and ordered the closure of girls’ schools, including Yousafzai’s.
Outraged, the then-11-year-old kept a blog for the BBC under a pen name and later launched a campaign for girls’ education. It won her Pakistan’s highest civilian honour and death threats from the Taliban.
Yousafzai was not blind to the dangers. In her hometown of Mingora, Fazlullah’s Taliban fighters dumped bodies near where her family lived.
“I heard my father talking about another three bodies lying at Green Chowk,” she wrote in her diary, referring to a nearby roundabout.
A military offensive pushed Fazlullah out of Swat in 2009, but his men simply melted away across the border to Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, they kidnapped and beheaded 17 Pakistani soldiers in one of several cross border raids.
Yousafzai continued speaking out despite the danger. As her fame grew, Fazlullah tried everything he could to silence her.
The Taliban published death threats in the newspapers and slipped them under her door. But she ignored them.
The Taliban say that’s why they sent assassins, despite a tribal code forbidding the killing of women.
“We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she would not stop (speaking against us),” said Sirajuddin Ahmad, a spokesman of Swat Taliban now based in Afghanistan’s Kunar province.
He said the Taliban held a meeting a few months ago at which they unanimously agreed to kill her. The task was then given to military commanders to carry out.
The militia has a force of around 100 men specialised in targeted killing, fighters said. They chose two men, aged between 20-30, who were locals from Swat Valley.
The gunmen had proved their worth in previous assassinations, killing an opposition politician and attacking a leading hotelier for “obscenity” in promoting tourism.
Their trademark is to kill by shots to the head.
Such hits, although dangerous, are also a badge of honour among the Taliban. The fighters who carry them out often receive personal calls of congratulations from senior leaders and may also get cash or guns.
Now it was Yousafzai’s turn.
“Before the attack, the two fighters personally collected information about Malala’s route to school, timing, the vehicle she used and her security,” Ahmad said.
They decided to shoot her near a military checkpoint to make the point they could strike anywhere, he said.
On Tuesday, the two men stopped the bus she was riding home in. They asked for Yousafzai by name. Although the frightened girls said she wasn’t there, the men fired at her and also hit two other girls in the van. One of them remains in critical condition.
Shot in the head and the neck, Yousafzai still lies unconscious in hospital, unaware that world leaders from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to US President Barack Obama have pledged support. Schoolchildren in Swat prayed for her recovery.
On Wednesday, the singer Madonna dedicated a song to Yousafzai during a LA concert. In a gesture that bemused many Pakistanis, she performed a striptease that revealed Yousafzai’s first name, Malala, written across her back.
Her would-be killers said they had no idea their attack would propel their victim, already a national hero, into a global icon.
“Actually the media gave it so much importance and now even Ban Ki-moon used dirty language against us,” Ahmad said. The international community stayed silent when the security forces killed women during a crackdown, he complained.
Now that they had failed to kill Yousafzai, they would target her father, Ahmad said.
Ziauddin Yousafzai, the headmaster of a girls’ school, is on their hit list for speaking against them, his activities to promote peace in the region and for encouraging his daughter.
“We have a clear-cut stance. Anyone who takes side with the government against us will have to die at our hands,” Ahmad warned.
“You will see. Other important people will soon become victims.”