The Taliban Ordered a Hit on a 14-Year-Old Girl Walking Home from School

Malala Yousafzai wrote about the Taliban banning girls education in Pakistan for the BBC in 2009, is the subject of two New York Times documentaries, and was the winner of Pakistan's first National Peace Award in December. On Tuesday, on her way home from school, she was shot in the neck and head by Taliban gunmen in a premeditated attack. The exact number of gunmen and the details of the shooting are still being sorted out—the BBC itself has two different accounts—but it's pretty clear why Taliban officials wanted her dead. Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported, "Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said that the TTP accepts responsibility of the attack as Malala was propagating anti-Taliban and ‘secular’ thoughts among the youth of the area." While the BBC reports, " Pakistani Taliban spokesman told the BBC they carried out the attack. Ehsanullah Ehsan told BBC Urdu that they attacked her because she was anti-Taliban and secular, adding that she would not be spared." According to doctors, Malala was now out of danger. However, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has ordered to shift her to a Peshawar hospital swiftly through a helicopter." reports the Dawn.