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Malala's battle for girls' education began when she was barely 11 years old and at a time when the Taliban roamed freely throughout the valley, blowing up schools, beheading security forces and leaving their dismembered bodies in the town square. "It was a very, very hard time. Malala spoke out on TV and in newspapers. She was threatened, her father was threatened," said Ahmed Shah, a family friend and educator, whose battle for girls' education has also brought death threats from the Taliban. He said the Pakistan government was the first to recognize her bravery with a National Peace Award in 2011, a year before the shooting. Shah said Malala, who is now 16 and has just published a book about the assassination attempt, also is paying a price for her notoriety. "I was talking to Malala's father the other day and he said Malala is weeping and saying,
'When will I study? I am going to America, to Austria, to Spain and for so many days I have not even had one class of geography.'" Naz, who started as school principal three months ago, said it doesn't help that Malala's assailant is still at large. The attacker will likely never be caught, said Shah, noting that police rarely even investigate an incident if the Taliban take credit for it. Fear among judges generally leads to acquittals anyway, said Swat lawyer Aftab Alam. "No one can dare to appear before the court, even the police cannot dare to investigate" an attack by the Taliban because of fear of retaliation, said Alam. "It is just impossible."
Military officials say Malala's assailant, identified as Attaullah, has fled to Afghanistan, while the police say the case is closed. Attaullah's sister, Rehana, told The Associated Press at her mountain home in the Swat Valley: "We don't know where he is, whether he is dead or alive." His uncle Painda Khan mumbled: "We don't know why people are blaming him. No one has told us why." The Taliban, driven out of the once idyllic valley in a bloody military operation nearly four years ago, are slowly creeping back. In recent months militants have killed the regional commanding officer as well as dozens of men on pro-government peace committees, and warn of more assassinations until their repressive brand of Islamic law is imposed in Pakistan. The militants remain unrepentant for the attack on Malala. Last weekend the Taliban again vowed to try to kill Malala if she returned from Britain to Pakistan, which she has repeatedly said is her dream. "If we found her again, then we would definitely try to kill her," Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told the AP in an interview. "We will feel proud upon her death."
[Associated
Press;
Kathy Gannon is Special Regional Correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan and can be followed at http://twitter.com/kathygannon.
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