An attempt to kill a 14-year-old advocate for women's rights by the taliban in Pakistan has caused national outrage.
Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head as she sat on a school bus with her classmates as it prepared to drive them home after lessons in Mingora, Pakistan.
Police say a bearded man approached the bus and asked which girl was Yousafzai. The gunman shot her and another female classmate. Three people in total are believed to have been wounded.
The taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attacks. One of their spokesmen said: 'She was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban and she was calling President Obama her ideal leader.
'She was young but she was promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas'.
In 2009 Yousafzai rose to fame after speaking out against taliban militants and writing blogs for the BBC's Urdu service about chaos in her local area.
She received a National Peace Award and was also nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize in 2011.
Leaders of the mainstream political parties have condemned the incident, also sending flowers to her bedside.
Following the attack she was taken to an intensive care ward in the city of Peshawar by military hospital.
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Outrage after 14-year-old activist is shot by taliban in Pakistan
By Natasha Wynarczyk - Wednesday 10 October 2012
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