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| Pakistani girls display a poster while sitting at their desk, as their teacher, not shown, talks to them about 14-year-old schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, who was shot last Tuesday by a Taliban gunman for her role in promoting girls' education in the Swat Valley where she lives, in a school in Islamabad, Pakistan Oct. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/ Muhammed Muheisen) |
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Islamabad.
A Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban because she campaigned
for the right to education was being flown to Britain on Monday for specialist,
long-term care, the military said.
Malala
Yousafzai, 14, who was shot in the former Taliban stronghold of the Swat valley
last Tuesday, was being sent abroad at a time when her condition is
"optimal and before any unforeseen complications had set in," it
said.
Malala was
being transported in a specialist air ambulance from the United Arab Emirates
and Pakistan said an army intensive care specialist was accompanying her.
"Pakistan
has arranged with the UAE for a specially equipped air ambulance to transfer
Malala to the UK," it said in a statement after the United Arab Emirates
had told Pakistan it was ready to send the plane.
The
shooting has been denounced worldwide and by Pakistan, which has said it will
do everything possible to ensure that Malala makes a recovery, paying for her
treatment, and offering more than $100,000 for the capture of her attackers.
The
cold-blooded murder attempt has sickened Pakistan, where Malala came to
prominence with a blog for the BBC highlighting atrocities under the Taliban,
who terrorized the Swat valley from 2007 until a 2009 army offensive.
Activists
say the shooting should be a wake-up call to those who advocate appeasement
with the Taliban. But analysts suspect there will be no significant change in a
country that has sponsored radical Islam for decades.
Malala was
first airlifted from Swat to a military hospital in the northwestern city of
Peshawar, then to the country's top military hospital in Rawalpindi, where
doctors on Sunday removed her ventilator for a "successful" short
trial.
The army
said that a panel of Pakistani doctors and international experts now agreed
that Malala needs "prolonged care to fully recover from the physical and
psychological effects of trauma that she has received."
It is also
expected that in due time damaged bones in her skull will need to be repaired
or replaced, and that she will need "long-term rehabilitation, including
intensive neuro-rehabilitation."
Pakistan
has not disclosed the name or location of the center where Malala will be
treated, but said it had the "capability to provide integrated care to
children who have sustained severe injury."
The army
said all expenses, including Malala's air ambulance flight and treatment abroad
will be borne by the government of Pakistan.
Malala's
family was consulted and their wishes also taken into consideration, the army
said, defending the care she had received so far.
"The
view of the international experts was that the neurosurgery performed in
Peshawar was exactly right and indeed saved her life," the army said.
It also
said the decision to transfer her to the specialized pediatric intensive care
unit at the Armed Forces of Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi was
"correct and timely," where her condition had stabilized.
AFP
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