Taliban shoot 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl campaigning f

[wautd]

The religion of peace at it again

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Taliban gunmen in Pakistan shot and seriously wounded on Tuesday a 14-year-old schoolgirl who rose to fame for speaking out against the militants, authorities said.

Malala Yousufzai was shot in the head and neck when gunmen fired on her school bus in the Swat valley, northwest of the capital, Islamabad. Two other girls were also wounded, police said.

Yousufzai became famous for speaking out against the Pakistani Taliban at a time when even the government seemed to be appeasing the hardline Islamists.

The government agreed to a ceasefire with the Taliban in Swat in early 2009, effectively recognising insurgent control of the valley whose lakes and mountains had long been a tourist attraction.

The Taliban set up courts, executed residents and closed girls' schools, including the one that Yousufzai attended. A documentary team filmed her weeping as she explained her ambition to be a doctor.

"My friend came to me and said, 'for God's sake, answer me honestly, is our school going to be attacked by the Taliban?'," Yousufzai, then 11, wrote in a blog published by the BBC.

"During the morning assembly we were told not to wear colourful clothes as the Taliban would object."

The army launched an offensive and retook control of Swat later that year, and Yousufzai later received the country's highest civilian award. She was also nominated for international awards for child activists.
Since then, she has received numerous threats. On Tuesday, gunmen arrived at her school and asked for her by name, witnesses told police. Yousufzai was shot when she came out of class and went to a bus.

Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said his group was behind the shooting.

"She was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban and she was calling President Obama her idol," Ehsan said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"She was young but she was promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas," he said, referring the main ethnic group in northwest Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. Most members of the Taliban come from conservative Pashtun tribes.

Doctors were struggling to save Yousufzai, said Lal Noor, a doctor at the Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital in the Swat valley's main town of Mingora.

Such bravery from the taliban again, what with shooting at a group of schoolgirls. I wonder how many testicles they have.

[KlavoHunter]

Begging your pardon, but why do you blame all of Islam for the actions of the Taliban? Slipping in a cheap shot against "The Religion of Peace" isn't going to get you high-fives and backslapping, this isn't the Fox News comment section.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

Perhaps the "religion of peace" bit will get him some applause, but the girl was just as Muslim as her killers, except that she wasn't a fuckhead. So, there goes. I think we needn't comment on the Taliban any longer than necessary, in the same way we don't discuss poisonous snakes.

[Stark]

Such bravery from the taliban again, what with shooting at a group of schoolgirls. I wonder how many testicles they have.

Yeah, violent social conservatives attacking well-known symbols of resistance is pretty unheard of. Right?

Its a tragedy, but to imagine this girl was no threat to them (when they obviously considered her a threat) is bizarre. Do you even know why people who stand up to oppression are considered brave?

[Rogue 9]

Such bravery from the taliban again, what with shooting at a group of schoolgirls. I wonder how many testicles they have.

Yeah, violent social conservatives attacking well-known symbols of resistance is pretty unheard of. Right?

Its a tragedy, but to imagine this girl was no threat to them (when they obviously considered her a threat) is bizarre. Do you even know why people who stand up to oppression are considered brave?

That in no way makes them not assholes for shooting her.

[Stark]

I guess that's why I didn't say it did, hey bro?

The real tragedy is given her age she may not have understood the risks of her activism, but I doubt she had the coddled childhood common in the west.

By I mean hey, America blows up little girls literally by accident.

[LadyTevar]

UPDATE:
BBC News reports that Malala Yousufzai is standing and able to communicate via writing notes. She has asked the doctors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham to continue informing the public of her progress.

Dr. David Rosser has warned that she is still 'not out of the woods' yet. There is some infection still in the bullet track which is a cause of concern, and Malala still faces several weeks of rehabilitation. She will also need part of her skull reconstructed, where it was removed to ease swelling of the brain.

[Bright]

I hope the girl makes it, and that whatever permanent damage she's taken will be minimal. Wanting to improve lives is a terrible reason to be attacked for.

And holy shit, the Taliban just can't help but make themselves look like bigger and bigger assholes, can they? I'm glad they're so utterly tone-deaf about their presentation. Every Muslim outraged about the incident and their subsequent comments will harm the Taliban in the lon run.

[madd0ct0r]

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10 ... 73992.html

huffpost, but they're quoting the Guardian.

- seems most of Pakistan thinks shooting 14yr old girls in the name of religious war is wrong and the whole things gone too far.
The Pakistanin Taliban is backpedalling rapidly before their entire supporting base erodes.

[Broomstick]

The Pakistani Taliban can fucking give each other barbed wire enemas before siting on a live grenade for all I care about them. Let their base erode, the world is better off without such groups.

[Ralin]

The Pakistani Taliban can fucking give each other barbed wire enemas before siting on a live grenade for all I care about them. Let their base erode, the world is better off without such groups.

You say that as if someone was expressing sympathy for them...

[Sidewinder]

You say that as if someone was expressing sympathy for them...

The fact the Taliban still exists some 11 years after their government of Afghanistan was overthrown, means a lot of people ARE expressing sympathy for these fucktards, even if the people in question have no internet access (what with them isolating themselves like bin Laden, trying to avoid caught in the US military's crosshairs).

[amigocabal]

Begging your pardon, but why do you blame all of Islam for the actions of the Taliban? Slipping in a cheap shot against "The Religion of Peace" isn't going to get you high-fives and backslapping, this isn't the Fox News comment section.

I agree.

It is just as offensive as calling all Catholics child molesters.

[Flagg]

You say that as if someone was expressing sympathy for them...

The fact the Taliban still exists some 11 years after their government of Afghanistan was overthrown, means a lot of people ARE expressing sympathy for these fucktards, even if the people in question have no internet access (what with them isolating themselves like bin Laden, trying to avoid caught in the US military's crosshairs).

He was talking about people in this thread, retard.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I'm glad that whatever the Taliban was trying to accomplish has clearly backfired- in shooting her they've actually shot themselves in the foot. They've also given the girls cause a huge publicity boost