OSLO- Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenage educationcampaigner shot on school bus in 2012 by a Taliban gunman, and KailashSatyarthi, an Indian children’s rights activist have jointly won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

The two were named joint winners of the award having a prize money £690,000 (8m kronor or $1.11m) by the chairman of the Nobel committee, Norway’s former Prime MinisterThorbjoernJaglandon Friday morning.

Malala, now 17, was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman two years ago in Swat Pakistan after coming to prominence for her campaigning for education for girls. The award is for her “heroic struggle” for girls’right to an education. She is the youngest ever winner of the prize.

She has since continued to campaign for girls’ education, speaking beforethe UN, meeting Barack Obama, being named one of Time magazine’s 100 mostinfluential people and last year publishing the memoir I am Malala.

In a statement, the Nobel committee said: “Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls toeducation, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, cancontribute to improving their own situations. This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education.”

KailashSatyarthi, the Nobel committee said, “Showing great personal courage, and maintaining Gandhi’stradition, has headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, allpeaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financialgain. He has also contributed to the development ofimportant international conventions on children’s rights.”

The Nobel committee said it “regards it as an important point for a Hinduand a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle foreducation and against extremism”.

Satyarthi, 60, dedicated his prize to children in slavery. “It’s an honourto all those children who are still suffering in slavery, bonded labour andtrafficking.”

Yemeni Nobel peace laureate Tawakkol Karman said Malala and Satyarthi wereworthy winners and that Satyarthi had taken part in an “outstanding and longstruggle for the rights of the child”.

There were a record 278 nominations this year, 19 more than ever before –including US whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, the Russianpresident, Vladimir Putin, and Pope Francis. Also on the list of nomineeswas an anti-war clause in the Japanese constitution and the International Space Station Partnership.

Previous choices include illustrious names such as Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Martin Luther King - and, controversially, Barack Obama in2009.

On Thursday, the Nobel committee stunned the literary world by choosing little-known French author Patrick Modiano for the prize for literature.