Pakistani girl shot by Taliban being taken to U.K.
Updated at 10:24 a.m. ET
ISLAMABAD Pakistan airlifted a 14-year-old activist who was shot and seriously wounded by the Taliban to the United Kingdom for treatment Monday, a move that will give her access to the specialized medical care she needs to recover and also protect her from follow-up attacks threatened by the militants.
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports from the Pakistani capital that Malala Yousufzai's doctors expect her to make steady if slow progress, according to a diplomat who had seen her en route to Britain. Malala's condition was reported as stable during the weekend, and doctors had reduced her sedation to see if they could determine how much damage has been done to her brain, Palmer reports.
The attack on Malala as she was returning home from school in Pakistan's northwest a week ago has horrified people both across the country and abroad. It has also sparked hope the government would respond by intensifying its fight against the Taliban and their allies.
Over 100 Taliban militants attacked a police station near the main northwest city of Peshawar late Sunday night, sparking a gunbattle that lasted several hours, police said. Six policemen were killed during the clash, including two who were beheaded.
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Malala was targeted by the Taliban for promoting girls' education and criticizing the militant group. Two of Malala's classmates were also wounded in the attack and are receiving treatment in Pakistan.
Signs of hope for young girl shot by Taliban
The Taliban said they attacked Malala because she was promoting "Western thinking" and have threatened to target her again until she is killed.
Police told Palmer that that, although the attack happened on a relatively busy road, no witnesses have come forward. On a brighter note, Palmer reports, the school that Malala championed so passionately is full. All the girl students have come to school and told Palmer that they and their parents -- even though they've been frightened by the attack -- are refusing to be intimidated.
Malala was flown out of Pakistan on Monday morning in a specially equipped air ambulance provided by the United Arab Emirates, said the Pakistani military, which has been treating the young girl at one of its hospitals.
Video footage handed out by the military showed Malala being wheeled out of the hospital on a stretcher, covered in a white sheet and surrounded by uniformed army officers. She was placed in the back of an ambulance and driven to the airport, where she was put on a plane.
A panel of doctors recommended that Malala be shifted to a center in the United Kingdom that has the ability to provide "integrated" care to children who have sustained severe injuries, said a military statement.
"It was agreed by the panel of Pakistani doctors and international experts that Malala will require prolonged care to fully recover from the physical and psychological effects of trauma that she has received," the military said.
The plane stopped for several hours in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi on the way to the United Kingdom, said the Pakistani Ambassador to the UAE Jamil Ahmed Khan. The ambassador visited Malala during the stop and said she appeared to be in stable condition. Her parents were not on the plane with her, he said.
Khan told CBS News Malala appeared to be improving steadily. He said her doctors told him they believe she will make a slow recovery, but will recover, eventually. He added that her parents will join her in the U.K. at some point.
Khan told CBS News security measures were being taken to protect Malala because of the Taliban threat against her, but he would not go into specifics.
Wounded Pakistani girl moved to U.K. for treatment
Malala will be treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham in central England, a center which has specialized in the treatment of troops wounded in Afghanistan, said British Prime Minister David Cameron's office.
"The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague in a statement sent to reporters. "Malala's bravery in standing up for the right of all young girls in Pakistan to an education is an example to us all."
Pakistani doctors at a military hospital earlier removed a bullet from Malala's body that entered her head and headed toward her spine. The military has described her recovery as satisfactory and said she was able to move her legs and hands several days ago when her sedatives were reduced. They have not said whether she suffered any brain damage or other permanent damage.
On Monday, the military said damaged bones in Malala's skull will need to be repaired or replaced, and she will need "intensive neuro rehabilitation." The decision to send the girl abroad was taken in consultation with her family, and the Pakistani government will pay for her treatment.
Pakistanis have held rallies for Malala throughout the country, but most have only numbered a few hundred people. The largest show of support by far occurred Sunday when tens of thousands of people held a demonstration in the southern party city of Karachi organized by the most powerful political party in the city, the Muttahida Quami Movement.
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To me, ALL Taliban and Al Qaeda are cowards - and if Mohammed was the loving prophet Islam claims him to be, then these people should be the ones being executed for defaming him. It doesn't take a hero to kill innocent, unarmed people.
A few Pakistanis protested this shooting, but most stayed home, silent. My opinion, if you are Muslim and are not speaking out against the terrorists, then you are a terrorist - just like Nazi Germany.
Unfortunately, the radicals always seem to get more media attention than the peaceful ones. And oddly enough, they generally represent only a small minority of their religion.
Years ago, I attended college in the Bible Belt -- I grew up in NY -- and developed an immediate dislike for the Evangelical Christians who called themselves, "The Moral Majority." Today they are referred to as the "Religous Right."
But they were neither moral or anywhere near a majority. What they were, though -- and remain -- was vocal. Conversely,the sane masses stayed quiet, a practice that has been going on since the beginning of time across the globe.
I have met many Muslims in my lifetime, some in NY and some in Florida where I now live. They were loving, rational and warm people. They came from theocracies like Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia, emigrating here primarily to get away from those who bastardize their religion. They are not be placed in the same basket with the terrorists -- just as the vast majority of progressive Protestants and Catholics here shouldn't be assosiated with the fanatical ones.
Violence has a way of traumatizing the most emotionally stable and rational of people. This, indeed is the case in the extremist states on the other side of the world. They have seen too many brave comrades murdered taking a stand against the radicals. That list includes Benazir Bhutto, the loving and compassionate former Pakistani prime minister.
So I believe it's fair to say the vast majority of these peaceful Muslims are caught in between a proverbial rock and hard place. They need our understanding, not fear and anger that is based on misinformation.
This same type of arguement was used by German citizens after WWII.
There are 1.5 Billion Muslims in the world, about 2 Million in the US - you can't tell me a large number of these people cannot make a point of standing up to the terrorists and at least demonstrate against it - protest at the Pakastani Embassy, show a voice against extremism in their religion.
And comparing the Taliban or Al Qaeda to Christian or Catholic "fanatics" is a bit extreme - with the exception of Northern Ireland. You generally don't see Bible Belt Baptists slitting the throats of Jews on the internet.
Your hands aren't as clean as you seem to think they are.