ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan airlifted a 14-year-old activist who was
shot and seriously wounded by the Taliban to the United Kingdom for
treatment Monday, a move that will give her access to the specialized
medical care she needs to recover and also protect her from follow-up
attacks threatened by the militants.
The attack on Malala
Yousufzai as she was returning home from school in Pakistan's northwest a
week ago has horrified people both inside the country and abroad. It
has also sparked hope the government would respond by intensifying its
fight against the Taliban and their allies.
Over 100 Taliban
militants attacked a police station near the main northwest city of
Peshawar late Sunday night, sparking a gunbattle that lasted several
hours, police said. Six policemen were killed during the clash,
including two who were beheaded.
Malala was targeted by the
Taliban for promoting girls' education and criticizing the militant
group. Two of Malala's classmates were also wounded in the attack and
are receiving treatment in Pakistan.
The Taliban said they
attacked Malala because she was promoting "Western thinking" and have
threatened to target her again until she is killed.
Malala was
flown out of Pakistan on Monday morning in a specially equipped air
ambulance provided by the United Arab Emirates, said the Pakistani
military, which has been treating the young girl at one of its
hospitals. It's unclear whether her family members, who could also be
vulnerable to attack, accompanied her.
Video footage handed out by
the military showed Malala being wheeled out of the hospital on a
stretcher, covered in a white sheet and surrounded by uniformed army
officers. She was placed in the back of an ambulance and driven to the
airport, where she was put on a plane.
A panel of doctors
recommended that Malala be shifted to a center in the United Kingdom
that has the ability to provide "integrated" care to children who have
sustained severe injuries, said a military statement.
"It was
agreed by the panel of Pakistani doctors and international experts that
Malala will require prolonged care to fully recover from the physical
and psychological effects of trauma that she has received," the military
said.
The British Foreign Office said Malala would be treated at a
public hospital in the U.K., but details are not being released for
reasons of patient confidentiality.
"The U.K. stands shoulder to
shoulder with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism," said British
Foreign Secretary William Hague in a statement sent to reporters.
"Malala's bravery in standing up for the right of all young girls in
Pakistan to an education is an example to us all."
Pakistani
doctors at a military hospital earlier removed a bullet from Malala's
body that entered her head and headed toward her spine. The military has
described her recovery as satisfactory and said she was able to move
her legs and hands several days ago when her sedatives were reduced.
They have not said whether she suffered any brain damage or other
permanent damage.
On Monday, the military said damaged bones in
Malala's skull will need to be repaired or replaced, and she will need
"intensive neuro rehabilitation." The decision to send the girl abroad
was taken in consultation with her family, and the Pakistani government
will pay for her treatment.
Pakistanis have held rallies for
Malala throughout the country, but most have only numbered a few hundred
people. The largest show of support by far occurred Sunday when tens of
thousands of people held a demonstration in the southern party city of
Karachi organized by the most powerful political party in the city, the
Muttahida Quami Movement.
Malala earned the enmity of the
Pakistani Taliban for publicizing their behavior when they took over the
northwestern Swat Valley, where she lived, and for speaking about the
importance of education for girls.
The group first started to
exert its influence in Swat in 2007 and quickly extended its reach to
much of the valley by the next year. They set about imposing their will
on residents by forcing men to grow beards, preventing women from going
to the market and blowing up many schools - the majority for girls.
Malala
wrote about these practices in a journal for the BBC under a pseudonym
when she was just 11. After the Taliban were pushed out of the Swat
Valley in 2009 by the Pakistani military, she became even more outspoken
in advocating for girls' education. She appeared frequently in the
media and was given one of the country's highest honors for civilians
for her bravery.
The military carried out its offensive in Swat
after a video surfaced of a militant flogging a woman who had allegedly
committed adultery, which helped mobilize public support against the
Taliban.
Many hope the shooting of Malala will help push the
military to undertake a long-awaited offensive in the Pakistani
Taliban's last main sanctuary in the country in the North Waziristan
tribal area.
The police station attacked by the Taliban on Sunday
night was located in the small town of Matni, some 20 kilometers (12
miles) south of Peshawar, said police officer Ishrat Yar. The militants
were armed with heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, hand
grenades and assault rifles.
One of the policemen who was beheaded
was a senior official who commanded several police stations in the area
and was leading reinforcements against the attack, said Yar. Another 12
policemen received gunshot wounds.
The militants burned the police station and four police vehicles before they escaped, said Yar.
A
Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Afridi, claimed responsibility
for the attack, saying the police were targeted because they had killed
several militants.
The Taliban have carried out hundreds of
attacks throughout Pakistan but the attacks rarely include such a high
number of militants as in the assault on the police station in Matni.
Associated Press