Malala hopes Nobel will help her cause

London: Malala Yousufzai hoped that it will help her cause of educating girls. "We cannot express the level of our happiness in words. I just spoke to Ziauddin (Malala's father), and her mother. I also spoke to Malala, and they are all very excited and happy about this," the Telegraph quoted Malala’s first cousin Mehmood ul Hassan as saying. Hassan said the whole family was thrilled. "Malala told me that Allah has blessed her with this award and she hopes this peace prize will help her cause (of educating girls), which is what she is focused on." Meanwhile, Pakistan's top leadership congratulated teenage girls' education activist Malala Yousafzai for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, calling her the "pride" of the country.

"She is pride of Pakistan. She has made her countrymen proud. Her achievement is unparallelled and unequalled. Girls and boys of the world should take lead from her struggle and commitment," Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in his felicitation message.

Malala, 17, was shot in the head in an attack by Pakistani Taliban militants in 2012 in Mingora town of northwest Swat region. The militant outfit was opposed to her campaign for girls' education. She has since become a global celebrity after winning several prizes, capping them with the prestigious 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

Malala is the youngest person to win the prize, which she shared with Indian children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi. There are reports of celebration in her hometown of Mingora after local media broke the rare good news for the people of the militancy-hit region.

Education rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai was at the school in central England, where she lives after recovering from a Taliban bullet.