Education under attack from terrorists: Karzai

KABUL, President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday.

Congratulating Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by militants in the northwestern picturesque valley of Swat last year, on her 16th birthday, the president said education had been a major casualty of the insurgency.

In a statement from the Presidential Palace, Karzai blamed the opponents of development for hindering efforts at promoting education in the neighbouring countries.

He warned against the use of terrorism and extremism as a political tool, saying such an approach was not in the interest of any nation. Kabul and Islamabad should jointly battle the twin scourge, the president stressed.

In her first major appearance that coincided with her 16th birthday, Malala Yousafzai told the UN Youth Assembly in New York on Friday the extremists had failed to silence her and called for global access to education.

 “Let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons. One teacher, one book, one pen, can change the world,” she told about 1,000 youth leaders on Malala Day.

Her brush with death nine months ago had made her more determined in promoting the cause of education.“Dear friends, on October 9, 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends too, thinking the bullets would silence us, but they failed.”

Though the UN declared Friday as Malala Day, the teenager said it was “not my day,” but a day for all those trying for their rights. Her life had not changed at all; here ambitions, hopes and dreams remained the same, she added.

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