“Thank God I’m not dead”, was the first thought that came to the mind of a terrified Pakistani teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai on waking up in a British hospital after being shot in the head by the Taliban.
Malala, 16, has stated this in her autobiography “I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban”, according to extracts of the book published in the Sunday Times.
In her book which is to be published on Tuesday, Malala, the front-runner to win the Nobel Peace Prize to be announced on October 11, gives an elaborate account of the time when she woke up in the hospital after the attack, saying, “I woke on October 16, a week after the shooting. The first thing I thought was, ‘Thank God I’m not dead’.
Malala also gives an account of the deadly Taliban attack.
Describing the attack, Malala writes in the book that “a young bearded man stepped into the road and waved the van down. As he was speaking to the driver another young man approached the back.
“He looked like a college student,” Malala writes. She then says the man then demanded “Who I Malala?”.
{{/usCountry}}“He looked like a college student,” Malala writes. She then says the man then demanded “Who I Malala?”.
{{/usCountry}}“No one said anything, but several of the girls looked at me. I was the only girl with my face not covered. That’s when he lifted up a black pistol, a Colt .45. Some of the girls screamed. My friends say he fired three shots,” she writes.