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Malala calls for dialogue with Taliban

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Press Trust of India London
Last Updated : Oct 07 2013 | 4:46 PM IST
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who is a front-runner for the Nobel Peace Prize after surviving a Taliban assassination attempt last year, has said dialogue with militants is the only way forward for peace.
"The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue," the 16-year-old said. "That's not an issue for me, that's the job of the government...And that's also the job of America...They (Taliban) must do what they want through dialogue.
"Killing people, torturing people and flogging people...It's totally against Islam. They are misusing the name of Islam," Malala said on a special BBC Panorama programme titled "Shot for Going to School" to be aired on Monday.
Malala was attacked by Taliban fighters on a school bus near her former home in Swat Valley of northwest Pakistan on October 9, 2012. She was shot in the head and had to undergo several surgeries.
The teenager was targeted for speaking in favour of girls' rights to education, and the attack triggered global outrage.
Malala was airlifted to Birmingham and spent months in hospital for several operations to repair her skull. She now lives and goes to school in the British city but wishes to return to her country of birth and enter politics.

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"I will be a politician in my future. I want to change the future of my country and I want to make education compulsory," she said in her first in-depth interview since the attack.
The pupil of Edgbaston School for Girls in Birmingham asked fellow British students to regard education as precious. "I want to tell the students of UK to think that it is very precious, it's very prestigious, go to school," she said.
On being a front-runner for the Nobel Peace Prize, Malala said: "If I win the Nobel Peace Prize, it would be a great opportunity for me, but if I don't get it, it's not important because my goal is not to get Nobel Peace Prize, my goal is to get peace and my goal is to see education of every child."
She will know the result by the end of this week, which coincides with the launch of her memoirs "I Am Malala".

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First Published: Oct 07 2013 | 4:46 PM IST

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