Taliban unrepentant after attack on Pakistani teen
Pakistan -- The Taliban is threatening to finish off a 14-year-old Pakistani girl whom it shot for helping other girls go to school -- if she survives a wounding that has made her a hero to many Pakistanis.
Schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head and neck, was airlifted Thursday to a military hospital for her own protection after the attack that also injured two of her friends. A hospital spokesman described her condition as "satisfactory" Friday.
Timeline
A 14-year-old Pakistani girl's brave fight against the Taliban: A timeline
Young Malala Yousafzai began to rail against the Taliban's ban on girls' education when she was just 11. Just this week, she survived an assassination attempt
posted on October 10, 2012, at 10:15 AM
The international community was stunned Tuesday when a 14-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, was shot in the head by Taliban militants. The teen, who has been an outspoken advocate of girls' right to education since she was 11, was ambushed on her school bus on the way home from school in the Swat Valley. Malala was flown from Mingora, the city where she lives, to Peshawar, where surgeons were able to remove a bullet near her spine. As supporters struggled to comprehend the brutal attack, many wondered why the Taliban would target a young girl. (The Taliban response: Malala has "become a symbol of Western culture in the area.") Malala's fight against oppressive Taliban strictures first began when, at age 11, she penned a diary for the BBC's Urdu service detailing the atrocities committed by the militant group. Since then, Malala has continued to speak out. Here, a look at the teen girl who took on the Taliban:
The Taliban, hoping to enforce a ban on girls' education, orders all private schools closed in the northwestern Swat district where Malala lives. Malala subsequently writes a diary about the harrowing experience for the BBC's Urdu site. Among the more unsettling things she shares: "On my way from school to home I heard a man saying 'I will kill you'." New York Times reporter Adam Ellick then interviews Malala for the documentary Class Dismissed. At 11, she already knows that she wants to be a doctor, but cries at the thought of not being able to fulfill that dream because of the Taliban's edicts.
May 2009
The Taliban seizes complete control of the Swat Valley, and begins to freely patrol the city of Mingora. Dozens die and thousands flee. A peace deal between the Pakistani government and the Taliban collapses. Later, the Taliban is routed from the area, but pockets of militants remain, and they force their harsh rules on citizens.
November 2011
Malala, who has continued to speak out on behalf of all Pakistani girls, is awarded the country's first National Peace Prize for Youth, with a $10,500 award. "I convinced my friends and other classmates of the importance of education and told them that our primary education will decide our future," she says. "I am thankful not only to the students but also to their parents for honoring my requests and sending their daughters back to school."
December 2011
The government renames the honor the National Malala Peace Prize.
April 2012
Malala, now in the eighth grade, speaks with the website Think Twice Pakistan about a possible career in politics. "My purpose is to serve humanity, fight for their rights," she says.
Oct. 9, 2012
On her way home from school, Malala is shot in the head when Taliban gunmen pull over her school bus and ask for her by name. She is rushed to a hospital, and then later transferred to another facility in Peshawar for emergency surgery. The Taliban claims responsibility, and promises "to finish this chapter" because of Malala's ongoing "obscenity."
Oct. 10, 2012
Doctors successfully remove a bullet that was lodged near Malala's spine. Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik obtains a passport for the young girl, and the head of PIA, the national airline, offers to pay all expenses for Malala to be flown anywhere in the world for treatment should she need it.
Sources: BBC (2), CBS News, CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times, Think Twice Pakistan, The Washington Post
Malala Has Won
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?'
Sometimes Salala, sometimes Malala being made pretext to eliminate a section of society, says JUI-F chief.
JUI-F chief says attack on Malala is not part of Pukhtoon culture. PHOTO: PPI/FILE
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
Madonna told audience the incident made her cry.
Madonna told audience the incident made her cry. PHOTO: AFP / FILE
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
Hussain urges citizens and the country to submit details of all muftis and ulemas in their localities within a week.
Hussain urges citizens and the country to submit details of all muftis and ulemas in their localities within a week. PHOTO: MQM
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
We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she wouldn't stop (speaking against us), say Swat Taliban.
We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she wouldn't stop (speaking against us), say Swat Taliban. ILLUSTRATION: JAMAL KHURSHID
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.”
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