Protests throughout Pakistan condemning Taliban attack

(Reuters) – Pakistani surgeons removed a bullet on Wednesday from a 14-year-old girl shot by the Taliban for speaking out against the militants and promoting education for girls, doctors said.

Malala Yousufzai was in critical condition after gunmen shot her in the head and neck on Tuesday as she left school. Two other girls were also wounded.

Yousufzai began standing up to the Pakistani Taliban when she was just 11, when the government had effectively ceded control of the Swat Valley where she lives to the militants.

Her courage made her a national hero and many Pakistanis were shocked by her shooting.

General Ashfaq Kayani, chief of Pakistan’s powerful army, visited her in hospital and condemned her attackers.

“The cowards who attacked Malala and her fellow students, have shown time and again how little regard they have for human life and how low they can fall in their cruel ambition to impose their twisted ideology,” Kayani said in a statement.

The military said it had a simple message, which it wrote in capital letters in the statement to add emphasis: “WE REFUSE TO BOW BEFORE TERROR.” Continue reading “Update on Malala: Pakistani doctors remove bullet from girl shot by Taliban” →