Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year old Pakistani activist who won international acclaim for her work promoting peace, and two other young girls were shot and seriously injured Tuesday, police and hospital officials said.

Local police and hospital officials told NBC News that Malala was shot in the neck and head shortly after leaving her school in the Swat region. Doctors said they were working in an attempt to save the lives of all three girls.

Malala was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize in 2011 for a blog she wrote under a pseudonym for the BBC. She also won the National Peace Prize in Pakistan, honored with a school named after her, and quickly became an outspoken critic of the Taliban in Pakistan and public advocate for peace.

In it, she chronicled life in the Swat Valley under the brutal and oppressive rule of the local faction of the Pakistani Taliban, who carried out public floggings, hung dead bodies in the streets, and banned education for girls.

In early 2011, the militants had added Malala to their hit list.  "We wanted to kill her as she was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban."

The Taliban had made a plan for killing her a year ago but were waiting for an opportunity.