Satyarthi’s plea to Taliban captors

NEW DELHI: Nobel laureate KailashSatyarthi, who shared this year’s peace prize with Khyber Pakhtunwa-bornMalalaYousufzai, Pakistan’s province in which the terrorists struck, told a TV channel on Tuesday, “I beg the Taliban, take me and leave these children.”
Satyarthi said this shortly after a Pakistan Taliban spokesman Mohammed Khurasani claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to media houses, saying their suicide bombers had carried out the attack in revenge for the killings of Taliban members at the hands of Pakistani authorities.
As the world reacted to the numbing attack on schoolchildren, Satyarthi said, “It’s the most shocking incident, in my knowledge, in my life. These children are my children.”
Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban when she was 15 for fighting for the right to education for young girls. Satyarthi was awarded the Nobel for saving children from trafficking.
The Pakistani military launched a widespread military operation in the North Waziristan tribal area in June, vowing that it would go after all militant groups that had been operating in the area.