Nigeria girls abduction: Boko Haram doesn`t understand Islam, says Malala Yousufzai

Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha Abuja: Pakistani teen activist and campaigner for girls` education Malala Yousufzai has condemned the girl`s` abductions by the Boko Haram in Nigeria and said that the militant group should first read Quran as they do not understand Islam. Speaking to the BBC, Malala expressed sadness over the tragic abductions and said that the people must speak up against the abduction of more than 200 girls in Nigeria as silence will only embolden the militants to stage more such incidents.

“We must speak up... or such things will happen more and more”, said Malala who has been hailed as a champion of girls` rights and education worldwide. Calling the abducted girls as her sisters in prison, Malala added that the Boko Haram should first read the Quran as the holy book ordains all to gain knowledge and spreads the message of peace and brotherhood. Malala`s suggestion to the brutal militant group was in response to a video wherein the Boko Haram militant Abubakar Shekau had said that Allah had instructed him to sell the girls in the human market. Malala, who was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for promoting girls` education and writing against the militants in Swat Valley, has been prominently vocal and was also nominated for Nobel Peace Prize. Meanwhile, reports said that Boko Haram have carried a deadly raid on Gamboru Ngala - a village on border with Cameroon, where Nigeria had deployed troops to search for the missing girls. According to the BBC, militants first misled the security troops to another village near Chad border, telling them that the girls had been spotted there. After the security forces had left, the militants staged a gruesome attack on the village, hurling grenades and burning hundreds of cars and buildings. Ahmed Zanna, a senator from the village says that over 300 people are believed to have died in the raid, said the BBC. Claiming for the first time in a video first accessed by the AFP news agency, Boko Harma leader Abubakar Shekau said that the girls were not meant to be in school and it is Allah`s instruction that they must be sold.   Reports have it that the girls, who were in final year of the boarding school, were forced to marry their abductors at a normal bride rate of $12, according to the BBC.  The US First Lady has expressed support for the abducted girls by tweeting a picture of herself saying “Bring Back Our Girls:”.

Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families. It's time to #BringBackOurGirls. -mo pic.twitter.com/glDKDotJRt

— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 7, 2014

The heinous abduction and later the video sent by the militant group has been termed as heartbreaking by the US President Barack Obama.     Obama has assured of support to Nigeria government in cracking down on militants and has deployed military experts to trace them.  Nigeria police have announced a cash reward of 50 million naira (USD 300,000) to anyone providing information helpful in locating more than 200 girls abducted by the Boko Haram militants.