PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN, Oct 10: Pakistani surgeons removed a bullet today 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 yesterday 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.
Doctors said they were forced to begin operating at around 0200 hrs local time (2330 IST yesterday) after Yousufzai developed swelling in the left portion of her brain.
They removed a bullet from her body near her spinal cord and finished at around 5 am.
“She is still unconscious and kept in the intensive care unit,” said Mumtaz Khan, head of a panel of doctors taking care of Yousufzai in a military hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
The military flew Yousufzai from her home in Swat, northwest of Islamabad, to Peshawar yesterday.
The shooting was denounced across Pakistan. The front pages of national newspapers carried pictures of a bandaged and bloody Yousufzai being brought to hospital.
“Hate targets hope” the Express Tribune said in a headline. (AGENCIES)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel