Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility for shooting advocate for girls' rights

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for shooting a 14-year-old activist who gained international attention for advocating girls' and children's rights. 

The activist, Malala Yousafzai, was flown to a military hospital in Peshawar after being shot in the head by a gunman in Mingora, a city in northwest Pakistan, officials said, according to The Washington Post.

Surgeons were reportedly unable to immediately operate on Yousafzai because of swelling in her skull.

A seventh grader who was wounded in the shooting said she saw two "bearded armed men" stop the school van that she and Yousafzai were riding in "and opened fire from behind the fan."

The Pakistani Taliban took credit for the killing, saying they shot Yousafzai for creating "negative propaganda" concerning Muslims.

Yousafzai, who had been an outspoken proponent of literacy and education for girls in Pakistan, gained international attention in 2009 for writing for the BBC's Urdu Service about life under the Taliban. She received a one million rupee peace award — equal to about $10,000 — in 2011 for her work and advocating for girls' education and children's rights in Pakistan, according to the Post.

"During the morning assembly we were told not to wear colorful clothes as the Taliban would object to it," Yousafzai wrote in one entry for the Urdu Service.

"She considers President Obama as her ideal. Malala is the symbol of the infidels and obscenity," a Taliban spokesman said.

---