11/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Ashton says attack on 14-year old schoolgirl in Pakistan is “vile”. On Wednesday 10 October, Catherine Ashton denounced as “vile” an attack the previous day, in the Swat Valley (a region that was for a long while under Taliban control), against a young Pakistani anti-Taliban activist (Malala Yousufzai), perpetrated by Islamist Al-Qaeda allies. Ashton was “appalled to learn that a 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl (…) was attacked (…) by extremists for advocating girls' rights to education”, her spokesman states in a press release. The aggression “is an assault both on basic human values and against all human rights defenders in Pakistan”, Ashton concludes. (LC/transl.jl)