School girl who blogged against Taliban attacked in Pak

Islamabad, October 9: A 14-year-old Pakistani girl, who emerged as an unlikely champion of peace in the former Taliban stronghold of Swat, was seriously injured when a suspected militant attacked her car in the country's restive northwest today.

Malala Yousufzai, the first recipient of Pakistan's National Peace Award for Youth, was hit by at least two bullets when the gunman fired at her car in Swat, located 160 km from Islamabad.

Two other children were injured in the attack that occurred outside Yousufzai's school.

Yousufzai was rushed to a hospital in Saidu Sharif town where doctors performed an emergency surgery, TV news channels reported.

Security forces cordoned off the hospital. The attack occurred as the girls were leaving the school after it closed early due to a protest by government employees.

The gunman asked people in the area to point out Yousufzai and then fired at her car, witnesses said.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Yousufzai received several threats after she began writing about the excesses of the Taliban in a blog.

In March, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said Yousufzai and social worker Shad Begum were on the militants' 'hit list'.

Shad Begum was among 10 women conferred the International Women of Courage Award by the US. Yousufzai received the first National Peace Award for Youth from former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani in December last year for her "courageous and outstanding services for the promotion of education and peace under extremely hostile conditions" in Swat.

The teenage girl was a victim of the ban imposed by the Taliban on education for girls after the Swat region was overrun by the militants in 2008.

She wrote about her pain and anguish while blogging for BBC Urdu under the pseudonym Gul Makai.

Yousufzai had encouraged her fellow students to continue their studies despite threats from militants before the military launched an operation to flush out the Taliban from Swat in 2009.

Besides being nominated for the International Peace Prize for Children, she was also decorated with the Sitara-i-Jurat.

The government sent the army into Swat in early 2009 after the Taliban began extending their influence to districts located 100 km from Islamabad.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters were captured or killed but most of the top commanders, including Mullah Fazlullah, managed to escape to Afghanistan.

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Pak jail authorities say Imran Khan is alive and healthy after ‘murder’ rumours spark panic

News Network

November 27,2025

Authorities at Pakistan’s high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on Wednesday dismissed speculation about the condition of imprisoned former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, rejecting rumours that he had been moved out of the facility or was in danger. Officials said Khan was in “good health” and described the viral death claims as “baseless.”

“There is no truth to reports about his transfer from Adiala Jail,” the Rawalpindi prison administration said in a statement, according to Geo News. “He is fully healthy and receiving complete medical attention.”

Amid swirling rumours on social media, Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), urged the federal government to issue an official clarification and demanded that authorities allow his family to meet him immediately, Dawn reported.

The frenzy began after Khan’s three sisters called for an impartial probe into what they described as a “brutal” police assault on them and other PTI supporters outside Adiala Jail last week. Soon after, several social media handles circulated unverified claims alleging that Khan had been “killed” inside the prison.

The rumours intensified when a handle named “Afghanistan Times” claimed that “credible sources” had confirmed Khan’s “murder” and that his body had been moved out of the jail — allegations that have not been verified by any credible agency.

Imran Khan, PTI’s patron-in-chief, has been lodged in the Rawalpindi prison since August 2023 in multiple cases. For over a month, an undeclared restriction has prevented family members and senior PTI leaders from meeting him. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has reportedly been denied access despite making seven attempts.

In a letter to Punjab Police Chief Usman Anwar, Khan’s sisters — Noreen Niazi, Aleema Khan, and Dr. Uzma Khan — said they were “peacefully protesting” outside the jail when police allegedly launched an unprovoked assault after streetlights were switched off.

“At 71, I was seized by my hair, thrown to the ground and dragged across the road,” Noreen Niazi said, alleging that other women present were also slapped and manhandled.

Adiala Jail officials reiterated that speculation over Imran Khan’s health was unfounded and insisted that his well-being was being ensured, Geo News reported.

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