On her way to Britain: Brave Malala, 14, who survived being shot in the head by Taliban for going to school, leaves hospital in Pakistan en route to UK for life-saving treatment

• Gunmen shot her in head and neck while she waited for school bus
• The 14-year-old is an outspoken advocate for girls’ education
• She is expected to arrive in the UK at 3:30pm local time
• Will be cared for at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham
• Provoked a march by tens of thousands of people in Karachi
• Taliban have said she was shot for promoting 'Western thinking'

Targeted: Malala Yousafzai, 14, spoke out about suffering under the Taliban regime

The Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head and neck by the Taliban was this afternoon arriving in Britain for treatment.
Malala Yousafzai, 14, will be taken straight to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where medics will work on reconstructing her shattered body.
She was accompanied by both her parents and her two brothers, who are 12 and seven.
It is understood Malala, an outspoken advocate for girls’ education and critic of the Taliban, will need between four to six months of hospital care.
She has already had a bullet removed from her body after she was shot last week.
But experts believe damaged bones in her skull will have to be repaired or replaced and she will need intensive rehabilitation.
It is unclear if she and her family will ever return to Pakistan where her life is still under threat from extremists.
Malala’s journey began early this morning when she was seen leaving a military hospital in Rawalpindi on a trolley before being driven to the airport. She was transported to the UK in a specially equipped air ambulance along with her family and a British medical team.
The Queen Elizabeth, her eventual destination, specialises in treating troops wounded in Afghanistan.
Malala's horrific ordeal has touched millions of people around the world who admired her extraordinary bravery in standing up to the Taliban. The shooting also sparked protests across Pakistan at the weekend.
Malala was shot on a school bus last Tuesday in the northwestern district of Swat. Two classmates who were with her were also injured in the gunfire.

Treatment: Pakistani army doctors and medical staff transport 14-year-old schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, who was shot last Tuesday by the Taliban, to transfer her from a military hospital to the airport in Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Worldwide attention: An air ambulance with Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai aboard taxis at Chaklala Airbase

Assesment: She will be taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for treatment, which has specialised in the treatment of troops wounded in Afghanistan

The air ambulance was arranged by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Pakistani army confirmed
In a statement it said: 'The panel of doctors recommended that Malala be shifted abroad to a UK centre which has the capability to provide integrated care to children who have sustained severe injury.
'Pakistan has arranged with the UAE for a specially equipped air ambulance which will be used to transfer Malala to the UK. In order to provide continuity of care, an army intensive care specialist will accompany Malala on her flight.

'All expenses including transportation of Malala by specially equipped air ambulance and treatment abroad will be borne by the government of Pakistan.'
A Downing Street spokeswoman said in a statement: 'We offered last Thursday our help to the government of Pakistan in caring for her because she does need particular specialist care,' said the spokeswoman.
'The authorities in Pakistan have taken us up on the offer, so she is on her way and she will be at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.'
The spokeswoman said that 'security has been taken into account.'

Support: Pakistani schoolgirls pray for the recovery of Malala as she makes her way to the UK

Protests: Pakistani human rights activists have marched across the country to condemn the shooting of Malala

'The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism,' said Foreign Secretary William Hague.
'Malala's bravery in standing up for the right of all young girls in Pakistan to an education is an example to us all.'

The plane stopped for several hours in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi on the way to the United Kingdom, said the Pakistani Ambassador to the UAE Jamil Ahmed Khan.
The ambassador visited Malala during the stop and said she appeared to be in stable condition.
Her parents were not on the plane with her, he said.
The shooting occurred after a group of militants riding on a bike stopped the bus carrying the schoolgirls.

Stable: Malala being transported between hospital wards. The teenage Pakistani children's rights activist was shot in the head on a school bus in the former Taliban stronghold of Swat

Attempt: A Pakistani Taliban organisation have taken responsibility for the shooting which also injured another girl on the bus leaving their school in Mingora

FURY AS IMRAN KHAN SAYS TALIBAN ARE FIGHTING 'A HOLY WAR'

Former Pakistan cricketer Imran Khan has provoked Afghanistan's government by saying that the Taliban were fighting a 'holy war.'

Now a politician, Khan visited 14-year old Malala Yousafzai and made the comments after to reporters. 
He said that insurgents in Afghanistan were fighting a 'jihad.'
Citing a verse from the Qur'an, he said: 'It is very clear that whoever is fighting for their freedom is fighting a jihad …
'The people who are fighting in Afghanistan against the foreign occupation are fighting a jihad,' he added, according to a video of remarks to journalists.
The Afghani government were quick to condemn Kahn's comments with a spokesman saying Kahn was 'either profoundly and dangerously ignorant about the reality in Afghanistan or he has ill will against the Afghan people'.
'Our children are killed on a daily basis, civilians killed and our schools hospitals and infrastructure attacked on a daily basis,'
'To call any of that jihad is profoundly wrong and misguided.'
The rise in Islamic militancy in Pakistan was not due to militants themselves, but on U.S. military action, especially CIA drone strikes, according to Khan.

Masked men then boarded the vehicle and pointed guns at the girls, asking for Malala.
A hooded Taliban militant shouted: 'Which one of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I will shoot you all. She is propagating against the soldiers of Allah, the Taliban. She must be punished.'
Almost as soon as he shouted this, the militant recognised the youngster and shot her at point blank range.
Last week authorities announced they have identified her attacker and offered a 10,000,000 rupee (£119,000) reward for his capture.
On arrival at a military hospital, Pakistani doctors removed a bullet from Malala's body that entered her head and headed toward her spine.
The military has described her recovery as satisfactory and said she was able to move her legs and hands several days ago when her sedatives were reduced.
They have not said whether she suffered any brain damage or other permanent damage.
On Monday, the military said damaged bones in Malala's skull will need to be repaired or replaced, and she will need 'intensive neuro rehabilitation.'
The Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the shooting because Malala was promoting 'Western thinking.'
But that has not deterred one of the other wounded girls shot by the gunmen from pledging to return to school with Malala one day.
Shazia Ramzan, also 14, who was hit in the shoulder and hand, said: 'She will recover and we will go back to school and study together again.'
The shooting has provoked outrage in the country and tens of thousands of people have since marched in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, in support of her.
The demonstration in the southern city of Karachi was by far the largest since Malala and two of her classmates were shot on October 9 while returning home from school in Pakistan’s northwest.
Protests against the shooting have been relatively small until now, usually attracting no more than a few hundred people.
The political party that organised Sunday’s rally in Karachi, the Muttahida Quami Movement, however called the Taliban gunmen who shot the girl 'beasts' and said the shooting was an attack on 'the ideology of Pakistan'.

Recovering: A 'stable' Malala Yousafzai, is moved to a helicopter to be taken to Peshawar for treatment

Wounded: Hospital staff assist Malala Yousafzai as she arrives at Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital after the attack in the Swat Valley region in northwest Pakistan

Help: Crowds gathered around the hospital as news quickly spread about the attempted assassination of the young peace activist

Many of the demonstrators carried the young girl’s picture and banners praising her bravery and expressing solidarity.
Last week Madonna strip-teased to 'show her support' for Malala at a Wednesday night performance in the Staples Centre, Los Angeles.
According to Entertainment Today, she told fans that the news that the 14-year-old had been gunned down by the Taliban had made her 'cry'.
She said: 'The 14-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot on a schoolbus for writing a blog about how important education was to her.

'The Taliban stopped her bus and shot her. Do you understand the sickness and absurdity of this?'

She rallied the crowd by shouting at them to support education and those who help women.

But then the millionaire decided that this performance clearly was not a strong enough statement, and chose to 'dedicate' a strip tease to the girl, who is currently in a critical condition.

She turned her back to reveal 'Malala' written across it, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

'This song is for Malala,' she said, before singing her 'Human Nature' song.

But her attempt to make a stand in the name of Malala backfired after furious Pakistanis discovered her act.
Malala earned the enmity of the Taliban for publicising their behaviour when they took over the northwestern Swat Valley, where she lived, and for speaking about the importance of education for girls.

Outrage: Activists carry photographs of Malala Yousafzai during a protest rally against her assassination attempt

Support: Demonstrators in Mingora hold banners reading 'we want peace on our motherland' and 'attack on Malala Yousufzai is an unsuccessful attempt to destroy peace in the valley'

United: Women hold banners demanding education rights during a protest in Islamabad

The group first started to exert its influence in Swat in 2007 and quickly extended its reach to much of the valley by the next year.
They set about imposing their will on residents by forcing men to grow beards, preventing women from going to the market and blowing up many schools - the majority for girls.
Malala wrote about these practices in a journal for the BBC under a pseudonym when she was just 11. 
After the Taliban were pushed out of the valley in 2009 by the Pakistani military, she became even more outspoken in advocating for girls’ education.
She appeared frequently in the media and was given one of the country’s highest honours for civilians for her bravery.

Today former prime minister Gordon Brown, who is UN Special Envoy for Global Education, said he would be visiting Pakistan next month to talk with President Zardari about Malala's cause of girls' education.

He said: 'I know that Britain will offer Malala the best treatment possible and the British people will welcome her, hoping and praying for her recovery.'

He added: 'Today we are launching on www.educationenvoy.org a petition under the headline 'I am Malala' in support of what Malala fought for, that every girl has the chance to go to school.

'Today, sadly, 32 million girls are not going to school and it is time to fight harder for Malala's dream to come true.'

Solidarity: People light candles to pray for the recovery of Malala Yousafzai in Lahore, Pakistan. Her best friend has vowed that they will return to school

Many hope the shooting of Malala will help push the military to undertake a long-awaited offensive in the Pakistani Taliban's last main sanctuary in the country in the North Waziristan tribal area.
The police station attacked by the Taliban on Sunday night was located in the small town of Matni, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Peshawar, said police officer Ishrat Yar. The militants were armed with heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and assault rifles.
One of the policemen who was beheaded was a senior official who commanded several police stations in the area and was leading reinforcements against the attack, said Yar. Another 12 policemen received gunshot wounds.
The militants burned the police station and four police vehicles before they escaped, said Yar.
A Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Afridi, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the police were targeted because they had killed several militants.
The Taliban have carried out hundreds of attacks throughout Pakistan but the attacks rarely include such a high number of militants as in the assault on the police station in Matni.