As the international outrage grows over the shooting of the Pakistani student campaigner of child rights, government officials issued a $10,000 reward for information on the Taliban gunmen who shot Malala Yousafzai on Tuesday in north-western Swat Valley.
The 14-year-old Pakistani activist was shot in the head by gunmen who walked up to her school bus and singled her out by calling her name for the attack. The girl is now recovering in the Combined Military Hospital at Peshawar. Doctors successfully removed a bullet from her shoulder; however, she remains in critical condition.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister, Mian Iftikhar Hussain announced the $10,000 reward for any valuable information leading to the arrest of the Taliban gunmen. He said the decision to shfit Malala to a hospital abroad for further treatment has been postponed.
Malala took up blogging at the age of 11 for the BBC's Urdu service and become the first-ever winner of Pakistan's national peace award. She gained international recognition for highlighting Taliban atrocities in Swat where militants burned girls' schools and terrorised the valley.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik and army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited her in the hospital and assured that the people behind the attack will be punished.
Meanwhile, the international community strongly condemned the attack. U.S. President Barack Obama called it a barbaric act and offered assistance in the transport and treatment of Malala.
"I know that the president found the news reprehensible and disgusting and tragic," White House spokesman Jay Carney was quoted in the Daily Times.
French Embassy in Islamabad said in a statement that the attack on the defenceless girl illustrates the cowardice and cruelty of the Taliban. Denouncing the attack, the special representative of the UN secretary general for children and armed conflict who visited the wounded girls in the hospital, wished them a quick recovery.
Many other international leaders including the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, European Union policy chief Catherine Ashton, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack in the strongest terms.
