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Thousands rally to support Pakistani girl
Associated Press - October 15, 2012
The demonstration in the southern city of Karachi was by far the largest since Malala Yousufzai and two of her classmates were shot last week while returning home from school in Pakistan's northwest.
The attack horrified people inside and outside Pakistan and sparked hope among some that it would prompt the government to intensify its fight against the Taliban and their allies.
But protests against the shooting have been relatively small until now, usually attracting no more than a few hundred people. That response pales in comparison to the tens of thousands who held violent protests in Pakistan last month against a film produced in the United States that denigrated the Prophet Mohammed.
Demonstrations in support of Malala and against rampant militant violence in the country have also been fairly small compared with those focused on issues such as US drone attacks and the NATO supply route to Afghanistan that runs through Pakistan.
Pakistan's mainstream political parties are often more willing to harangue the US than direct their people power against Islamist militants shedding blood across the country – partly out of fear and partly because they rely on Islamist parties for electoral support.
One exception is the party that organised Sunday's rally in Karachi, the Muttahida Quami Movement. The party's chief, Altaf Hussain, criticised Islamic and other mainstream political parties for failing to organise rallies to protest against the attack on Malala.
He called the Taliban gunmen who shot the girl "beasts" and said the shooting was an attack on "the ideology of Pakistan".
"Malala Yousufzai is a beacon of knowledge. She is the daughter of the nation," Hussain told the audience by telephone from London, where he is in self-imposed exile because of legal cases pending against him in Pakistan.
Many of the demonstrators carried the young girl's picture and banners praising her bravery and expressing solidarity.
Yousufzai was shot in the neck, and the bullet headed toward her spine. On Sunday, she was successfully taken off a ventilator for a short period and later reconnected to avoid fatigue, the military said.
Doctors are satisfied she is making slow and steady progress and will decide whether to send her abroad for treatment. The United Arab Emirates plans to send a specialised aircraft to serve as an ambulance for the girl in case doctors decide to send her abroad.
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