Malala Yousafzai: Shot Pakistan girl to move hospitals

 

There have been protests against the shooting in several Pakistani cities

A 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head by Taliban gunmen is to be transferred to a new military hospital with better facilities, officials say.

Activist Malala Yousafzai, in critical condition two days after being attacked in the north-western Swat Valley, will be moved from Peshawar to Rawalpindi.
The Taliban, who accuse her of "promoting secularism", have said they will target her again.
There have been widespread protests in Pakistan against the shooting.
Doctors have told relatives that the coming hours are expected to be crucial as she regains consciousness.
"Doctors have decided to shift Malala to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Rawalpindi where medical facilities are better," Maj Ishtiaq Ahmad told the BBC.
One doctor in Peshawar, Mumtaz Khan, told AFP news agency that she had a 70% chance of survival.
"Her condition is not yet out of danger despite improvement," Masood Kausar, the governor of the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was also quoted as saying.
'Barbaric mindset'

"I felt hurt on opening my wardrobe and seeing my uniform, school bag and geometry box. Boys' schools are opening tomorrow. But the Taliban have banned girls' education. ”

         Malala Yousafzai Diary entry, 8 February 2009

Pakistani officials have offered a 10m rupee ($105,000; £66,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the attackers.

Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who visited Malala in hospital in Peshawar on Wednesday, said it was time to "stand up to fight the propagators of such barbaric mindset and their sympathisers".
Malala gained attention aged 11, when she started writing a diary for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban.
Under the pen-name Gul Makai, she wrote about suffering caused by militants who had taken control of the Swat Valley in 2007 and ordered girls' schools to close.
The Taliban were ousted from Swat in 2009, but her family said they had regularly received death threats.
They believed she would be safe among her own community, but on Tuesday, she was stopped as she returned home from school in Mingora, in north-western Swat, and shot in the head.

Malala Yousafzai began her blog at the age of 11

Two other girls were injured, one of whom remained in a critical condition on Wednesday.
Schools in the Swat Valley closed on Wednesday in protest at the attack, and schoolchildren in other parts of the country prayed for the girl's recovery.
Protests were held in Peshawar, Multan and in Malala's hometown of Mingora and in Lahore.
Those taking part praised the girl's bravery, while many condemned the attack as un-Islamic.