Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Malala Yousufzai being brought from Birmingham Airport to hospital David Jones/PA Wire

Pakistani girl shot by Taliban arrives in UK for treatment

Malala Yousafzai is being treated for a damaged skull in a highly specialised unit in Birmingham.

A 14-YEAR-OLD PAKISTANI girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for the right to an education in an attack that shocked the world has arrived in Britain for specialist care.

Malala Yousafzai, who was attacked on her school bus in the former Taliban stronghold of the Swat valley last Tuesday, flew in to Birmingham Airport in central England at around 3:50 pm, an airport spokeswoman said.

She will be cared for at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, a highly specialised facility where British soldiers seriously wounded in Afghanistan are treated, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron said.

Doctors in Pakistan have said Malala needs treatment for a damaged skull and “intensive neuro-rehabilitation”.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the “barbaric” attack on Malala had “shocked Pakistan and the world”.

“Malala will now receive specialist medical care in an NHS hospital,” he said.

“The public revulsion and condemnation of this cowardly attack shows that the people of Pakistan will not be beaten by terrorists.”

Security concerns meant Malala’s departure after daybreak from Islamabad Airport – in an air ambulance provided by the United Arab Emirates – was not announced until the plane was airborne.

Malala, who had been treated in a Pakistani military hospital, was accompanied on the plane by an intensive care specialist.

Asked if Malala will be guarded at the Birmingham hospital, Cameron’s spokeswoman said: “You wouldn’t expect me to talk about security matters in detail but certainly security has been taken into account.”

Dave Rosser, medical director at the Birmingham hospital, warned Malala faced a long road to recovery.

“We do unfortunately have very extensive experience of dealing with this sort of traumatic bullet related injury,” he said.

“Our experience with battle casualties, and you can deal with her as a battle casualty from a physiological point of view, is that patients need lots of different specialities.”

Denounced

The shooting has been denounced worldwide and by Pakistan, which has said it will do everything possible to ensure Malala recovers and will meet all the costs of her treatment.

The cold-blooded murder attempt has sickened Pakistan, where Malala came to prominence with a blog for the BBC highlighting atrocities under the hardline Islamist Taliban, who terrorised the Swat valley from 2007 until an army offensive in 2009.

Activists say the shooting should be a wake-up call to those who advocate appeasement with the Taliban, but analysts suspect there will be no significant change in a country that has sponsored radical Islam for decades.

On Sunday, around 10,000 people gathered in Karachi for a rally in support of Malala, organised by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement political party.

But right-wing and conservative religious leaders have refrained from publicly denouncing the Taliban. They have warned the government against using the attack on Malala as a pretext for an offensive in the militant bastion of North Waziristan.

The United States has long called on Pakistan to wage an operation in the district, considered the leadership base of the Haqqani network – blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan – as well as a Taliban stronghold.

Malala was first airlifted from Swat to a military hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar, then to the country’s top military hospital in Rawalpindi, where doctors on Sunday took her off a ventilator for a “successful” short trial.

The army said a panel of Pakistani doctors and international experts agreed Malala needed “prolonged care to fully recover from the physical and psychological effects of trauma that she has received”.

Schools and mosques across Pakistan have held special prayers for Malala.

Pakistan has offered more than $100,000 for the capture of her attackers.

A senior police official told AFP that investigators have questioned dozens of suspects, but that the hunt for the main culprits was continuing.

Ahmad Shah, police station chief in the town of Mingora where Malala was shot, has said nearly 200 people were detained including the bus driver and a school watchman, but most have been released.

- © AFP, 2012

Read: Shot Pakistani schoolgirl, 14, ‘showing signs of improvement’ >

Read: Condemnation after Pakistan child rights activist, 14, shot in head >

Author
View 20 comments
Close
20 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tomas J Carroll
    Favourite Tomas J Carroll
    Report
    Oct 15th 2012, 10:16 PM

    Malala, get well soon because you are a good fighter!

    133
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Furey
    Favourite Paul Furey
    Report
    Oct 15th 2012, 10:24 PM

    She deserves the best that humanity can give her. She has earned it and deserves it.

    111
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Keith Grant
    Favourite Keith Grant
    Report
    Oct 15th 2012, 10:21 PM

    Wat a hero…doubt Id have the bravery to do Wat she’s done and Im a grown man.

    98
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jay
    Favourite Jay
    Report
    Oct 15th 2012, 10:50 PM

    Only a hard cold bastard could hurt or pull a trigger on a frightened 14 year old Girl. She is a real Hero and I hope & pray she can recover well from this terrible ordeal. poor mite :(

    86
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jeff Kennedy
    Favourite Jeff Kennedy
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 12:11 AM

    Are politicians have been indoctrinating us with being multicultural for a generation so aren’t we supposed to think shooting 14yr old’s is fine

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dec Kavanagh
    Favourite Dec Kavanagh
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 5:39 AM

    Bizarre comment Jeff,
    Bizarre.

    38
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dietrich Död
    Favourite Dietrich Död
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 8:38 AM

    Hold on Jeff, can you clarify your argument? What does murdering children have to do with multiculturalism?

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Terry Tibbs
    Favourite Terry Tibbs
    Report
    Oct 15th 2012, 10:33 PM

    I hope the hospital she is being treated at is being kept a secret. Wouldn’t want to see the uk Taliban having another try to kill this brave child.

    77
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eugene Leahy
    Favourite Eugene Leahy
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 1:08 AM

    name is in the article

    26
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Broderick
    Favourite John Broderick
    Report
    Oct 15th 2012, 11:06 PM

    I have posted over the last week on this girl’s plight, for every positive post wishing this girl well there are always two red thumbs, Ok it really does not matter really, but I must say one thing! what really is going on if you think its just funny or just a sick joke anyone not wishing this young girl every success must be sick. Sorry but this is annoying me.

    72
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Broderick
    Favourite John Broderick
    Report
    Oct 15th 2012, 11:52 PM

    Ok the number of uncaring people is rising, God help us all.

    48
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Furey
    Favourite Paul Furey
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 1:13 AM

    I don’t think they are uncaring about her plight. Most are just uncaring about contributing and in love with power of the red thumb. Pity.

    29
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Damien Flinter
    Favourite Damien Flinter
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 12:51 PM

    Just a point John. I totally agree this was a barbaric act. But the condemnation of the atrocity without examining the context is tendentious and sentimental.

    This is being used propagandistically(surely as the manufactured ‘babies ripped from incubators in Kuwait’ lies), which is NOT to say it is a manufactured story.

    Why do the children killed as ‘collateral damage’ in drone strikes on convicted-by-suspicion ‘terrorists’ not get heliportation to Harley St.?
    There is a neo-colonial agenda working away patiently on a selective spinning to justify escalating wars. More children will continue to be butchered and maimed if we refuse to contextualise this multi-faceted brutalisation.
    If you reply, please address the point. And kindly do not project views not explicitly expressed.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Damocles
    Favourite Damocles
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 7:25 AM

    Well done England.

    Decency, fair play and caring.

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Bernadette Dunne
    Favourite Bernadette Dunne
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 3:10 AM

    Wishing Malala a speedy recovery and all the very best in the future Yoy are such a strong brave young girl and may your strength and all the prayers behind you bring you to a bright future x x

    28
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Declan Pollard
    Favourite Declan Pollard
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 7:54 AM

    What a brave and socially aware young child! It truly astounds me how a child can be so articulated and strong-willed to fight for a just cause in such adverse conditions: the right to education for young girls. I hope she survives to continue her crusade in fighting a terrible injustice!

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Karl O' Neill
    Favourite Karl O' Neill
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 8:06 AM

    Wishing her a full recovery. Hopefully her example will spark the fire in Pakistan towards change, and away from the barbaric mindset that justified shooting a little girl on a school-bus.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute kingstown
    Favourite kingstown
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 9:27 AM

    What a religion! Killing children because they want an education! We’ll hear the same lame protests about how Islam is a religion of peace etc. It means ‘Submission’ and apparently it also means ‘we’ll kill anyone who disagress with us, including children’.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Damien Flinter
    Favourite Damien Flinter
    Report
    Oct 16th 2012, 12:59 PM

    That scatter-gun logic means Christianity is all about child abuse and Judaism about bathing them in white phosphorous.

    Slight generalisation?

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute McNamees On TheGreen
    Favourite McNamees On TheGreen
    Report
    Oct 15th 2012, 10:20 PM

    Old news ! Slipping journal

    6
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds