Updated at 3:50 a.m. ET: LONDON -- The 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot and critically wounded by the Taliban for promoting education for girls and criticizing the militant group traveled to Britain on Monday for further medical treatment, officials said.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Malala Yousufzai would receive specialized care in a hospital in the country’s National Health Service system.
"Last week's barbaric attack on Malala Yousafzai and her school friends shocked Pakistan and the world. Malala's bravery in standing up for the right of all young girls in Pakistan to an education is an example to us all,” Hague said in a statement.
Pakistani military officials confirmed with NBC's Fakhar Rehman that Yousufzai's plane had departed for Britain early Monday.
Earlier, a medical team from the United Arab Emirates was sent to facilitate the transfer of Yousufzai to a hospital outside Pakistan.
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It was agreed by a panel of Pakistani doctors and international experts that Yousufzai will require prolonged care to fully recover from the physical and psychological trauma, a Pakistani military statement said. The panel of doctors recommended she receive treatment abroad, the statement said.
Yousufzai's family was consulted and their wishes were taken into consideration, according to the military.
Attacked while leaving school
Yousufzai was leaving school in her hometown in the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan on Oct. 9 when she was shot in the head and neck by the Taliban for speaking out against the militants and promoting education for girls.
Yousufzai, a cheerful schoolgirl who had wanted to become a doctor before agreeing to her father's wishes that she strive to be a politician, has become a potent symbol of resistance against the Taliban's efforts to deprive girls of an education.
On Sunday, tens of thousands rallied in Pakistan's largest city in support of Yousufzai.
The demonstration in the southern city of Karachi was by far the largest since Yousufzai and two of her classmates were shot.
Still, most government officials have refrained from publicly criticizing the Taliban by name over the attack, in what critics say is a lack of resolve against extremism.
Opponents of Pakistan's government and military say the shooting is another example of the state's failure to tackle militancy, the biggest threat to the stability of the nuclear-armed South Asian country.
The shooting of Yousufzai was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the young girl against one of Pakistan's most ruthless Taliban commanders, Maulana Fazlullah.
‘Public revulsion and condemnation’
The attack horrified people inside and outside Pakistan and sparked hope among some that it would prompt the government to intensify its fight against the Taliban and their allies.
“The public revulsion and condemnation of this cowardly attack shows that the people of Pakistan will not be beaten by terrorists. The U.K. stands shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism,” Britain’s Hague said in his statement.
But protests against the shooting have been relatively small until now, usually attracting no more than a few hundred people.
That response pales in comparison to the tens of thousands of people who held violent protests in Pakistan last month against a film produced in the United States that denigrated Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
Fresh Taliban attack
The Taliban struck again on Sunday night, attacking the police outpost near Peshawar with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, according to Reuters. Security officials said at least six policemen were killed, including two who were beheaded.
Seven policemen are still missing and presumed kidnapped. Several police cars and an armored vehicle were torched.
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The Taliban has been blamed for many suicide bombings across Pakistan and have also staged sophisticated, high-profile attacks on the military, one of the biggest in the world.
Pakistan's interior minister said police had dispatched guards to protect journalists who had been threatened by Taliban militants angered by coverage of Yousufzai's case.
The Taliban, based mostly in the unruly ethnic Pashtun tribal areas near the Afghan border, have said they would now try to kill her father, a headmaster of a girls' school in Swat.
Reuters and NBC News' Fakhar Rehman and Reuters contributed to this report.
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