Photo: REX USA/ROGER@ROGERASKEWPHOTOGRAPHY.CO.U/Rex.It's been nearly two years since gunmen opened fire on a school bus in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley, wounding three students, including their intended target, 15-year-old education activist Malala Yousafzai. Now 10 members of Shura, a Pakistani faction of the Taliban, have been arrested in connection with the incident. Pakistan Army's spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa told Reuters that the army also found documentation indicating the same men had plans to assassinate 22 other prominent activists in the area. The men are being interrogated before facing charges in anti-terrorism court.
Malala was already a renowned activist before the attack, but the events brought her international attention. She was airlifted to Britain for medical care following the shooting, and she and her family now reside in Birmingham, England, where she continues to campaign for children's education while attending school. In 2013, Malala released an autobiography and was the youngest person ever to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Malala continues to impress the world with her grace, strength, and sense of humor. She charmed Jon Stewart (and pretty much everyone else) when she appeared on The Daily Show last fall. Stewart and Malala discussed the importance of educating women and how she would respond if she came face-to-face with a terrorist. Her response left the host speechless.
Last year on her sixteenth birthday, Malala addressed the UN General Assembly in her first public speech since the shooting:
"They thought that the bullets would silence us. But they failed. And then, out of that silence, came thousands of voices. The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born. I am the same Malala. My ambitions are the same. My hopes are the same."