Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for advocating women's rights, has won the 2014 Nobel peace prize along with India's Kailash Satyarthi for their work on promoting child rights in the troubled sub-continent.
Satyarthi is a human rights activist who has been at the forefront of the global movement to end child slavery. He is 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.
So far his organization, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement), has freed over 80,000 children from various forms of servitude and helped in successful re-integration, rehabilitation and education.
In the statement, the committee said: "Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations. This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls' rights to education."
Malala has become the youngest Nobel laureate.
"We regard 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," the jury said.
This year's record number of 278 nominees included Pope Francis and Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, although the full list was kept a secret.
(With additional inputs from agencies)
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