Pakistani Child Activist Malala Yousafzai Becomes Youngest Person To Win Nobel Peace Prize

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Indian Philosopher Kailash Satyarthi Also Awarded Share Nobel Peace Prize!

The 17-year-old Malala, who shot to the limelight after Taliban militants pumped bullets into her for advocating education for girls, was named by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee for the top global award this year. She shares the award with 60-year-old Satyarthi, who runs an NGO in India that has been in the forefront of rescuing children from forced labour and trafficking.

OSLO – An Indo-Pak and Hindu-Muslim combination of Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai shared the Nobel Peace Prize honours for 2014 for their work on promoting child rights in the troubled sub-continent.

Malala becomes the youngest person ever to win a Nobel laureate.

The 60-year-old Satyarthi, who runs an NGO in India that has been in the forefront of rescuing children from forced labour and trafficking, and 17-year-old Malala, who shot to the limelight after Taliban militants pumped bullets into her for advocating education for girls, were named by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee for the top global award this year.

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 is to be awarded to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the rights of all children to education,” the jury said.

Satyarthi, who runs NGO Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (Save Childhood Movement), has maintained the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and headed various forms of peaceful protests, “focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain,” the Nobel committee said.

The Committee said it “regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism.”

Malala, who was nominated in the peace prize category last year also, had displayed tremendous courage even after the Taliban attack when she resolutely expressed her determination to carry on with her campiagn for child rights and girls education especially in a country like Pakistan.

Satyarthi, the second Indian after Mother Teresa to be named for the peace prize, and Malala join a select league of eminent international personalities who have shared the Nobel Peace Prize for their outstanding work in furthering world peace and in other fields.

India’s PM Narendra Modi congratulated his fellow Indian with this facebook post: “Congratulations to Shri Kailash Satyarthi on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The entire nation is proud of his momentous achievement. Shri Kailash Satyarthi has devoted his life to a cause that is extremely relevant to entire humankind. I salute his determined efforts.”

Malala, who was airlifted to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham where she was treated for life-threatening injuries, continued to campaign for girls’ education.

She addressed the UN last year, met US President Barack Obama and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. Last year, she published her memoir ‘I Am Malala’.