FYI..
BBC News Asia
9 October 2012 Last updated at 12:29 GMT
Malala Yousafzai: Pakistan activist, 14, shot in Swat
A 14-year-old rights activist who has campaigned for girls' education has been
shot and injured in the Swat Valley in north-west Pakistan.
Malala Yousafzai was attacked on her way home from school in Mingora, the
region's main town.
She came to public attention in 2009 by writing a diary for BBC Urdu about life
under Taliban militants who had taken control of the valley.
A Pakistani Taliban spokesman told the BBC they carried out the attack.
Ehsanullah Ehsan told BBC Urdu that they attacked her because she was
anti-Taliban and secular, adding that she would not be spared.
Malala Yousafzai was travelling with at least one other girl when she was shot,
but there are differing accounts of how events unfolded.
One report, citing local sources, says a bearded gunman stopped a car full of
schoolgirls, and asked for Malala Yousafzai by name, before opening fire.
But a police official also told BBC Urdu that unidentified gunmen opened fire
on the schoolgirls as they were about to board a van or bus.
She was hit in the head and, some reports say, in the neck area by a second
bullet, but is now in hospital and is reportedly out of danger. Another girl
who was with her at the time was also injured.
'Courage'
Malala Yousafzai was just 11 when she was writing her diary, two years after
the Taliban took over the Swat Valley, and ordered girls' schools to close.
In the diary, which she kept for the BBC's Urdu service under a pen name, she
exposed the suffering caused by the militants as they ruled.
She used the pen-name Gul Makai when writing the diary. Her identity only
emerged after the Taliban were driven out of Swat and she later won a national
award for bravery and was also nominated for an international children's peace
award.
Correspondents say she earned the admiration of many across Pakistan for her
courage in speaking out about life under the brutal rule of Taliban militants.
One poignant entry reflects on the Taliban decree banning girls' education:
"Since today was the last day of our school, we decided to play in the
playground a bit longer. I am of the view that the school will one day reopen
but while leaving I looked at the building as if I would not come here again."
She has since said that she wants to study law and enter politics when she
grows up. "I dreamt of a country where education would prevail," she said.
Taliban driven out
The BBC's Orla Guerin in Islamabad says that Malala Yousafzai was a public
figure who didn't shy away from risks and had strong support from her parents
for her activism. Indeed, her father, who is a school teacher, expressed his
pride in her campaigning.
In a statement about the attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf
said: "We have to fight the mindset that is involved in this. We have to
condemn it... Malala is like my daughter, and yours too. If that mindset
prevails, then whose daughter would be safe?"
The Taliban, under the notorious militant cleric Maulana Fazlullah, took hold
of the Swat Valley in late 2007 and remained in de facto control until they
were driven out by Pakistani military forces during an offensive in 2009.
While in power they closed girls' schools, promulgated Sharia law and
introduced measures such as banning the playing of music in cars.
Since they were ejected, there have been isolated militant attacks in Swat but
the region has largely remained stable and many of the thousands of people who
fled during the Taliban years have returned.
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