Malala Yousafzai’s family arrive in UK as father dubs her survival a ‘miracle’

By EMMA SWORD
Published on 26/10/2012 22:36

THE father of shot Pakistan teenager Malala Yousufzai said yesterday the decision for his daughter to be flown to the UK for treatment was a “miracle”, and he promised that she would “rise again”.

Ziauddin Yousufzai thanked doctors and staff at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for the treatment his 15-year-old Malala had received.

He was speaking after he and his wife Toorpekai and their sons, Atal Khan, eight, and Khushal Khan, 12, flew to the UK on Thursday. Malala is being looked after at the specialist hospital after being wounded by a Taleban gunman in north-west Pakistan.

She was travelling home from school with classmates when she was shot, believed to be at point-blank range. The bullet, which hit her just above the back of her left eye, came within inches of killing her.

It travelled down through the side of her jaw, damaging her skull and jaw joint on the left hand side, and went through her neck and lodged in the tissues above her shoulder blade.

Speaking at the hospital, Mr Yousufzai’s voice shook as he described his daughter’s condition immediately following the shooting on 9 October.

He said: “The very day I saw my daughter, and the next day when she was operated on, her whole body was swollen and she was in very bad condition.”

Mr Yousufzai, who was accompanied by Malala’s brother Khushal, said he was advised he should make arrangements for his daughter’s funeral.

Mr Yousufzai said: “The person who attacked her wanted to kill her, but she fell temporarily. She will rise again and she can stand now. But when she fell, Pakistan stood and the world rose.

“She got the right treatment at the right place at the right time.”