UN chief outraged by Taliban attack on Malala Yousufzai

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday condemned the shooting of a 14-year-old Pakistani girl by the Taliban, saying he was "deeply moved" by her campaign for education rights.

Ban "calls for the perpetrators of this heinous and cowardly act to be swiftly brought to justice," his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

"The Secretary General has been deeply moved by Malala Yousafzai's
courageous efforts to promote the fundamental right to education -- enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Nesirky said.

Ban is hoping for the teen's "full and speedy recovery," extending his "heartfelt sympathies" to her family and relatives of two other girls wounded in Tuesday's school bus attack in the Swat valley in Pakistan's northwest.

The UN chief also "expresses his solidarity with the government and people of Pakistan in their efforts to confront violent extremism," the spokesman said.

The teenage girl was in intensive care Wednesday in a military hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar after doctors removed a bullet lodged near her shoulder, where it moved after entering her head.

Tuesday's attack took place in Mingora, the main town in the Swat valley, where Malala had campaigned for the right to an education during a two-year Taliban insurgency, which Pakistan's army said it had crushed in 2009. (AFP)