Teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban, is “not yet out of danger” and is being moved from Peshawar to a top Rawalpindi hospital, authorities said today, as special prayers were offered across Pakistan for her speedy recovery.
Malala, 14, is currently in the intensive care unit of a military hospital in Peshawar after doctors yesterday removed a bullet lodged near her spine during a three-hour surgery.
Doctors have said she is improving though her condition continues to be serious.
Malala is being shifted to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) in Rawalpindi from the Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar.
“Her condition is not yet out of danger despite improvement. She is being shifted to Rawalpindi,” Masood Kausar, Governor of the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, told presspersons.
People from all walks of life held demonstrations and candlelight vigils in Lahore and other cities of Punjab province to condemn the Taliban’s cowardly act of attacking Malala, who came to prominence after she spoke out for the rights of girls when the Swat Valley was controlled by the Taliban in 2008.
Members of civil society organisations and associations of students, teachers, lawyers, Islamic clerics and doctors offered prayers in different ceremonies for the recovery of Malala.
Several Islamic clerics urged people to observe Friday as ‘Youm-e-Dua’ (day of prayers).
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying Malala was targeted for her “pro-West” views and for backing a secular government in Swat, where the army conducted a major offensive in 2009 to flush out militants.