Malala denounces 'cowardly' Quetta attack

Former British prime minister also issues condemnation for militant attack in Quetta on Saturday.


Afp June 17, 2013
Malala Yousafzai. PHOTO: FILE

LONDON: Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban for promoting girls' education, on Monday denounced an attack on a bus carrying female students in Quetta as "cowardly".

At least 25 people were killed on Saturday when militants blew up the bus in the capital of the Balochistan province and then stormed a hospital where survivors had been taken for treatment.

"This was a cowardly and desperate attempt to deny girls their right to education," Malala, 15, said in a statement.

Former British prime minister Gordon Brown, the United Nations special envoy for global education, said it was the "bloodiest atrocity yet in escalating violence against female students".

Malala was shot at point-blank range by a Taliban gunman as her school bus travelled through Swat Valley on October 9 last year, in an attack that drew worldwide condemnation.

She was flown to Britain for surgery on her head injuries and returned to school in Birmingham, central England, in March.

Malala has become a global symbol of the campaign for the right of girls to an education and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

COMMENTS (22)

Shabir Afzal | 10 years ago | Reply Who is Malala?
maestro | 10 years ago | Reply

Reading the anti-Malala Yousafzai comments from fellow Pakistanis, I am truly shocked to see the conspiracy theories and total disregard for a 15 year old girl who was shot in the head at point blank range while going to school in Swat just because she had raised her voice against taliban atrocities starting from a blog for BBC she wrote at age 11!!! You people are shameless and worse than the taliban. If your sister or daughter gets the same treatment then I'll see what you say. Pathetic nation of male conspiracy chauvinist ignorant theorists who think they know everything but actually know NOTHING!

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