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 recognizing 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 colorful 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 ideal leader,"
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.

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