THE PRAYER FOR THE WOUNDED 14-YEAR OLD ACTIVIST/BLOGGER BEGINS IN PAKISTAN

the 14-year-old school girl sought out and shot by the Taliban for blogging against them, was slowly recuperating Wednesday morning from the brazen attack that almost snatched her young life.

Doctors successfully removed a bullet lodged in her neck

after three hours of surgery, and said her condition was no longer critical.

"Inshallah (God willing), she will survive," said Dr. Mumtaz Ali, a neurosurgeon who worked on Malala with three colleagues.

Pakistan is a country numbed by the depressing regularity of extremist attacks. But the Tuesday morning attack stunned even the weariest.

Taliban militants stopped a school van carrying Malala and two other girls on their way home from school in northwest Pakistan's Swat Valley.

Culled:CNN

Edited: LII