Young girl ‘critical’ after being shot by Taliban

>>> a pakistani school girl who took on the taliban advocating for girls to be educated is now in intensive care after a taliban gunman boarded her school bus and shot her in the head and neck. a taliban spokesman claimed responsibility saying they wanted to kill the young activist. malala yousafzai for at least a year.

>> they cannot stop me. i will get my education if it is in home, school, or any place.

>> this 2009 interview with journalist adam alex was one malala gave as one of pakistan's best known, most outspoken and youngest critics of the extremist forces ravaging her country.

>> it was very scared that the militants threw acid on my face they can do anything.

>> she refused to let fear silence her. in her diary translated and published by the bbc 11-year-old malala described life under taliban rule . i was afraid going to school, she wrote because the taliban had issued an eeds it, banning all girls from attending schools. she went anyway inspiring others to do the same. her diary was not nominated for the international children's peace prize .

>> coming from a child, it's innocent, it's honest, it's open, and i think that's what was so threatening.

>> nbc's anna nawaz is in kabul. you prepared that report for "nightly news" and all of us were riveted by the tragedy. what do you know about her condition today?

>> we're learning today that malala is not yet out of the woods. doctors tell us that they were forced to perform an emergency surgery over night in the wee hours of the morning to remove a bullet that was lodged at the base of her neck where it meet hers shoulder. they did say that surgery was successful. she remains in intensive care . but they also say that the next few days of her recovery are critical. so while malala remains under tight security, still unconscious inside a military hospital in peshawar, outside those walls what we're seeing is the rest of the country is erupting in anger. they're supporting her and rallying publicly against the taliban and their brutal attack against the child as she left school yesterday. we've seen strong condemnation from government officials who offered up monetary rewards for any information leading to the attackers and we're seeing army officials rally behind malala. the head of the army general kayani, paid her a personal visit today and vowed afterwards to defend the values she herself had spent the last few years defending.

>> that is very important signal as well. thank you so much for your reporting.