A teenager who was shot in a Pakistan school massacre by the Taliban is set to begin a degree at Oxford University.
Ahmad Nawaz was 14 when gunmen burst into his school in Peshawar and killed around 150 teachers and students on December 16, 2014.
His brother Haris was killed in the attack, but Mr Nawaz was shot in the arm and survived by pretending to be dead.
He was flown to Birmingham for emergency treatment to save the limb and remained in the UK afterwards.
He has become a campaigner against youth radicalisation and for the right to an education of all children and has been given several humanitarian awards for his work.
Mr Nawaz will study philosophy and theology at Lady Margaret Hall – the alma mater of Michael Gove, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and renowned Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen.
Ms Yousafzai, 23, who recently completed her philosophy, politics and economics degree, was attacked aged 15 after campaigning for girls' right to an education in the country
Mr Nawaz told the Times: "When the terrorists came to attack children in school they wanted to stop people being educated.
“The fact I’ve got into one of the best universities in the world sends them the message that they can’t do those kind of atrocities and stop us from reaching new places.”
He added that the massacre took place when hundreds of children in the Army School were gathered for an assembly on first aid.
Mr Nawaz said the gunmen were shooting people “one by one” and were working their way down the rows of students towards him.
“I was lying on the floor face down and as I looked up (I saw) he had shot my friend and I realised it was my turn,” Mr Nawaz told The Times.
“He held the gun half a metre away from me and pointed it at my head, but at the moment he was going to shoot I flinched to my right and I got shot in my upper arm.”
He said the gunman moved on to the next person and started shooting.
Mr Nawaz said: “Survival instinct kicking in, I thought if I did make a movement or a noise I was going to die.”
He was later rescued from the school, but lost consciousness by the time he arrived at hospital having lost so much blood.
Mr Nawaz said hearing that his brother, who was a year younger, had died was the “most painful time” as they were both very close.
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He had six operations on his arm at a hospital in Peshawar before being transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham to save it from amputation.
