Teenager shot by terrorist wins place at Oxford University

LONDON: A teenager who was shot by a Taliban gunman during a terrorist attack that left 150 children and teachers dead at his school in Pakistan has won a place at the University of Oxford, foreign media reported.

Ahmad Nawaz was just 14 when fundamentalists carried out the massacre at the Army Public School in Peshawar.

His younger brother was killed in the atrocity, while he himself only survived by pretending to be dead after being shot in his left arm.

So bad were his injuries, he was airlifted to Birmingham for emergency treatment soon after being rescued from the school.

Now, after remaining here with his family ever since, he has achieved the school grades that have enabled him to take a place at Oxford to study philosophy and theology. Mr Nawaz, now aged 19, said: “When the terrorists came to attack children in school they wanted to stop people being educated.

“The fact I’ve got into one of the best universities in the world sends them the message that they can’t do those kind of atrocities and stop us from reaching new places.”

He will be following in the footsteps of Malala Yousafzai, who recently completed her philosophy, politics and economics degree at the same university.

She was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman at the age of 15 after campaigning for girls to be educated in her native Pakistan.

Mr Nawaz has been accepted at Lady Margaret Hall – the same college Ms Yousafzai, now 23, just graduated from.