When the converted truck that served as Shazia Ramzan’s school bus came to a sudden stop just after noon on Tuesday, Oct. 9, she didn’t think much of it. Traffic often clogged the narrow streets of Mingora, the mountain-fringed capital of Pakistan’s Swat district, and such stops were frequent. Fourteen girls and three teachers crammed on the parallel benches that ran the length of the truck bed,
and the thick plastic sheeting that protected them from the elements had no windows. The only way to see out was through the open back. Shazia, a 13-year-old eighth grader who was sitting two in from the opening,
glanced out. She was startled, then horrified, to see a masked man swing himself onto the back of the truck. “Which one is Malala?” he barked. Terrified, the girls fell silent.
Malala Yousafzai was their 15-year-old schoolmate, a well-known children’s rights advocate who frequently challenged the Pakistani Taliban’s stance against girls education….
