Next 36-48 hours 'critical' for Malala Yousafzai

The health of injured Malala Yousafzai

is satisfactory while next 36-48 hours are critical, said Director General ISPR Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa here on Friday. 'According to neurosurgical and intensive care specialists, health of Malala Yousafzai is satisfactory but next 36 to 48 hours are critical," said the DG ISPR while briefing the media-persons regarding health condition of 14-year school girl, who was targeted by militants in a Swat town on Tuesday. However, he said that Malala has been placed on ventilator but the team of doctors have described her health condition as satisfactory.

VIDEO:Pakistani PM visits Malala Yousafzai

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf visits Malala Yousafzai, the schoolgirl shot by the Taliban, in hospital -- calling her ''the real face of Pakistan.''

Malala’s brain not damaged: Medical reports

The medical tests done on Malala Yousafzai

after a bullet was successfully removed from the gunshot victim have revealed that her brain had not sustained any damage, reported Express News on Friday. After Malala, a 14-year-old child rights activist, was shot in the head by the Taliban, the doctors who performed surgery on her had expressed fear of a possibility of slight brain damage. However, all of her medical reports came out clear. Earlier, neuro-surgical and intensive care specialists said that although Malala’s state is satisfactory, the next 36 to 48 hours are critical for her, DG ISPR Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa announced Friday. Briefing the media on the state of Malala, he said that the transfer from Peshwar to Rawalpindi, although difficult, had transpired successfully. Bajwa said that the decision to transfer Malala from Peshawar to Rawalpindi was taken in accordance with directives from the doctors’ panel. The reason, he said, was that “the intensive care facilities here were found to be extremely suitable”, adding that all tests and investigations would be conducted again in here. The DG ISPR commended the performance of the doctors in Peshawar. He also told the media that while Malala was being moved, her team of doctors travelled with her. “The panel consists of both military and civilian doctors but there are two foreign doctors as well who were and are consulted for expert opinion,” he said. Bajwa said that Malala was still on the ventilator and no decision had been taken on transferring her abroad as yet. He urged people to continue praying for her. Earlier, doctors had said that Malala had a 70 per cent chance of survival and despite improvement, was seriously ill.

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TIME TO RAISE VOICE AGAINST TALIBAN

Latest Report On Malala Yousafzai

A boy cries as he prays for the speedy recovery of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai

Malala's condition satisfactory

A 14-year-old Pakistani activist who was shot by a Taliban gunman after speaking out for girls education is in satisfactory condition at a military hospital, a spokesman said Friday, cautioning that the next few days will be critical.T

Malala Yousufzai,Becomes a Global Icon

http://www.theatlantic.com

In December, when the United Nations declared October 11 as the date for an annual "International Day of the Girl Child," it said attention needed to be focused on promoting girls' rights. On October 11, when the newly minted UN day made its debut, global attention was focused on Malala Yousafzai -- the 14-year-old schoolgirl from Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley who was shot this week by the Pakistani Taliban for defending her right to an education.

The Pakistani Taliban (TTP) expected to silence her campaign, which she had carried out since the age of 11 through an online diary she wrote for the BBC. Instead, they created an international icon for girls' rights and made her known the world over simply as "Malala." At the European Union headquarters in Brussels on October 11, young schoolgirls at a launch event for "Day of The Girl Child" held up photos of Malala along with signs saying "Save The Girls." On social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, Malala was hailed as a brave girl whose story epitomizes the need for the UN day.

Stuart Coles, a spokesman for the international development charity "Plan," an organization that has been campaigning for the education rights of children for 75 years, says that social media appears to have latched onto Malala's story. "The public backlash has been very strong against this terrible event. And I think, inadvertently, she has become an example of the problems and the issues that many girls are facing across the world," Coles says. "It is an incredibly sad, tragic, event. But it is a reminder, really, of the dangers and risks that girls face when they are campaigning for rights and the right to education in some parts of the world." A statement tweeted by UNICEF on October 11 said, "Today our thoughts are with Malala Yousafzai, the inspirational 14-year-old activist for girls' rights." Meanwhile, concerned activists forwarded Pakistani media reports about Malala's transfer to a hospital in Rawalpindi after surgeons removed a bullet that passed through her head and lodged in her shoulder. Social Campaigns Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times tweeted links to his most recent opinion piece about the shooting. Kristof called the attack on Malala a reminder "that the global struggle for gender equality is the paramount moral struggle of this century, equivalent to the campaigns against slavery in the 19th century and against totalitarianism in the 20th century." He also shared information on how readers can "honor Malala" by donating to global organizations dedicated to the promotion of education rights for girls. The Global Fund for Women also called for donations to the cause of girls' rights, saying: "Ironically, the attack on Malala falls the same week as the first International Day of the Girl Child." Other online activists shared links to an October 10 editorial in The New York Times about the attack on Malala. "If Pakistan has a future, it is embodied in Malala Yousafzai," the editorial reads. "Malala has shown more courage in facing down the Taliban than Pakistan's government and its military leaders .... The murderous violence against one girl was committed against the whole Pakistani society. The Taliban cannot be allowed to win this vicious campaign against girls, learning and tolerance. Otherwise, there is no future for that nation." Hillel Neuer, executive director of the nongovernment watchdog group UN Watch, circulated an online petition calling for Pakistan to be blocked from getting a seat on the UN Human Rights Council until the government "stops those who shoot little girls." Meanwhile, in Pakistan, social networks also were being used to organize a candlelight vigil in Karachi for Malala -- a follow-up to a prayer gathering on October 11 that brought out thousands of supporters, many of them women. Across the rest of the country, Pakistanis from a broad political and religious spectrum have united in outrage and revulsion at the attack. As Pakistani politicians line up to condemn the shooting, commentators are pondering whether the tragedy can galvanize public opinion against the Pakistani Taliban enough to support a large military offensive against them. If that becomes the case, the Taliban gun that was fired at a schoolgirl to enforce a radical interpretation of Islam will officially have backfired.

Malala attack: Police arrest key suspects

Police claim to have apprehended three accused involved in the attack on Malala Yousafzai, Geo News reported.

According to DPO Swat, the accused were arrested from Mingora, adding that the mastermind of the attack is Attaullah who belongs to Sangota area of Swat. Attaullah would be arrested soon, the DPO vowed. Those arrested have been shifted to undisclosed location for interrogation. Meanwhile according to sources, four suspects including have been arrested in connection with attack on Malala Yousafzai.

US reiterates all out help for Malala

United States Thursday said that its offer to provide all the means for the transportation and medical treatment for Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban, was on the table for the Pakistani side, if they need it, Geo News reported. “President Barack Obama and his press secretary Jay Carney were pretty explicit about what we have proposed and offered. But my understanding is that the Pakistanis have not come back to us with any specific requests”, State Department’s Victoria Nuland said during a daily press briefing. To a question she said that White House had talked about the efforts against terror with Pakistan when with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who were here just a couple of weeks ago. “We have an intense counterterrorism relationship. We would like to do even more together. We’re continuing to try to work on these issues and encourage our Pakistani partners to do as much as they can against these issues, because Pakistanis are the greatest victims of terror inside their own country”, said Nuland. Replying to another query she said they were in contact with the Pakistani side in the wake of attack on Malala. “I think it speaks to the work that we’re trying to do to get all of these working groups that we had under our counterterrorism cooperation back up and running – as you know, we had the counter-IED group, etcetera – and to continue to support each other and share intelligence, etcetera,” she said.

Taliban’s ‘Radio Mullah’ sent hit squad after teen rights activist

One of the Taliban’s most feared commanders, Maulana Fazlullah, carefully briefed two killers from his special hit squad on their next target. The gunmen weren’t going after any army officer, politician or Western diplomat. Their target was a 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl who had angered the Taliban by speaking out for “Western”-style girls’ education. Tuesday’s shooting of Malala Yousafzai was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the fearless, smiling young girl against one of Pakistan’s most ruthless Taliban commanders. Their story began in 2009, when Fazlullah, known as Radio Mullah for his fiery radio broadcasts, took over Swat Valley, and ordered the closure of girls’ schools, including Yousafzai’s. Outraged, the then-11-year-old kept a blog for the BBC under a pen name and later launched a campaign for girls’ education. It won her Pakistan’s highest civilian honour and death threats from the Taliban. Yousafzai was not blind to the dangers. In her hometown of Mingora, Fazlullah’s Taliban fighters dumped bodies near where her family lived. “I heard my father talking about another three bodies lying at Green Chowk,” she wrote in her diary, referring to a nearby roundabout. A military offensive pushed Fazlullah out of Swat in 2009, but his men simply melted away across the border to Afghanistan. Earlier this year, they kidnapped and beheaded 17 Pakistani soldiers in one of several cross border raids. Yousafzai continued speaking out despite the danger. As her fame grew, Fazlullah tried everything he could to silence her. The Taliban published death threats in the newspapers and slipped them under her door. But she ignored them. The Taliban say that’s why they sent assassins, despite a tribal code forbidding the killing of women. “We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she would not stop (speaking against us),” said Sirajuddin Ahmad, a spokesman of Swat Taliban now based in Afghanistan’s Kunar province. He said the Taliban held a meeting a few months ago at which they unanimously agreed to kill her. The task was then given to military commanders to carry out. The militia has a force of around 100 men specialized in targeted killing, fighters said. They chose two men, aged between 20-30, who were locals from Swat Valley. The gunmen had proved their worth in previous assassinations, killing an opposition politician and attacking a leading hotelier for “obscenity” in promoting tourism. Their trademark is to kill by shots to the head. Such hits, although dangerous, are also a badge of honour among the Taliban. The fighters who carry them out often receive personal calls of congratulations from senior leaders and may also get cash or guns. Now it was Yousafzai’s turn. “Before the attack, the two fighters personally collected information about Malala’s route to school, timing, the vehicle she used and her security,” Ahmad said. They decided to shoot her near a military checkpoint to make the point they could strike anywhere, he said. On Tuesday, the two men stopped the bus she was riding home in. They asked for Yousafzai by name. Although the frightened girls said she wasn’t there, the men fired at her and also hit two other girls in the van. One of them remains in critical condition. Shot in the head and the neck, Yousafzai still lies unconscious in hospital, unaware that world leaders from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to U.S. President Barack Obama have pledged support. Schoolchildren in Swat prayed for her recovery. “The American people are shocked by this deplorable shooting of a girl who was targeted because she dared to attend school,” a statement from the White House said. On Wednesday, the singer Madonna dedicated a song to Yousafzai during a L.A. concert. In a gesture that bemused many Pakistanis, she performed a striptease that revealed Yousafzai’s first name, Malala, written across her back. Her would-be killers said they had no idea their attack would propel their victim, already a national hero, into a global icon. “Actually the media gave it so much importance and now even Ban Ki-moon used dirty language against us,” Ahmad said. The international community stayed silent when the Pakistani security forces killed women during a crackdown, he complained. Now that they had failed to kill Yousafzai, they would target her father, Ahmad said. Ziauddin Yousafzai, the headmaster of a girls’ school, is on their hit list for speaking against them, his activities to promote peace in the region and for encouraging his daughter. “We have a clear-cut stance. Anyone who takes side with the government against us will have to die at our hands,” Ahmad warned. “You will see. Other important people will soon become victims.”

Collect details of Muftis, ulemas: Altaf

FRONTIER POST

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Quaid Altaf Hussain Friday urged all office bearers, party workers and peace loving citizens in Karachi and across the country to submit within a week the details of all muftis and ulemas (clerics) in their localities, regardless of their sectarian affiliations, with the party’s unit and sector offices situated in their respective areas, FP News desk reported. MQM Quaid said that the particulars of all religious leaders holding different positions and titles such as muftis, imams, ulemas and khatib should be collected from the units and sectors at the zonal level from where they would be immediately consolidated and the MQM headquarter Nine Zero in Karachi. He further instructed all sector and unit office bearers to note down the names with addresses of all those who refuse to share their particulars so that the list of their names could be sent to the government, and thereby the government could itself obtain the details, as it would benefit the country and it’s innocent citizens. Earlier on Thursday, Altaf Hussain had given a 24 hours ultimatum to all top muftis and ulema (clerics) of the country to openly denounce the cowardly attack on young Pakistani children’s rights activist Malala Yousufzai and vowed to expose all those who fail to condemn the attack by Taliban.

President Zardari telephones father of Malala

President Asif Ali Zardari

Friday telephoned Zia-ud-Din Yousafzai, father of Malala Yousafzai and expressed grief and shock over the incident and strongly condemned the barbaric act of the militants. He said that through such acts the militants have shown their real face to the world. The President said that the militants would never succeed in shaking the resolve of the people and the government through these acts and this incident has further rejuvenated our spirits to face the menace of militancy head on. The President prayed for early recovery of Malala and said that the prayers of the whole nation were with her. He said that Malala symbolizes the quest for education by the girls of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and is also a symbol of courage of our women to challenge and stand against barbarity and oppression. He said that the doctors of Pakistan Armed Forces were providing best medical treatment to the injured girl and the government will put into service all possible means for the treatment and early recovery of Malala Yousafzai. The President during his telephonic conversation also expressed sympathies for the friends of Malala who sustained injuries during the attack of the militants on the school van.

Pakistan Is Everybody’s Problem

By:Shirin Tahir-Kheli

In the wake of the shocking shooting of Malala Yousafzai, the entire world must take responsibility for ending the Taliban’s war against women—particularly the Taliban’s backers.

The targeted shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan on Tuesday was another stark reminder of the Taliban’s defiance of the government and its efforts to push Pakistan into the dark ages. That women and girls are a special target is once again cynically displayed in the wretched words of the Taliban leadership celebrating their deed. The world has been asking, “What has happened in Pakistan?” for a long time. Now it is time for the world to take action.The nation’s president, prime minister, and army chief all said the right things when Malala suffered potentially lethal wounds to her head and neck. The army took charge of her medical treatment in one of the few good facilities in Peshawar. A jet was put on standby in order to fly her abroad for treatment, were it needed. The interior minister declared that Malala has become an “icon for the country.” If only that were true. Hundreds of girls’ schools have been destroyed without much of a concerted response from Pakistan’s officials. The intimidation of women and girls in the northern province is so complete that few venture out freely. Traditional Pashtun support for the education of daughters has been undermined by threats against their fathers. Not so long ago, even mullahs were increasingly sending their own girls to schools, segregated but still offering a chance of literacy. The government that has decried this assassination attempt is the same government that began its career on the heels of the assassination of another female, its leader Benazir Bhutto. Both Bhutto and Yousafzai are symbols of the serious malaise afflicting Pakistan today. A country that could produce a female prime minister, but not protect her, is shown to be once again supportive of female education but unwilling and thus unable to keep in check the dark forces of Taliban terror pulling the country into a future where girls are ignorant, uneducated, and living as less than second-class citizens. All this is done in the name of Islam: religion is a scapegoat for the uninformed, backward males who believe that they are the true guardians of a Pakistan created in the name of religion. The Islam I know has exhorted its followers to enable both men and women to strive for knowledge. It called upon males and females to do good work and to reap the rewards equally. The Quran admonished as evildoers the perpetrators of the practice where girls were buried at birth. There are a number of orders in the Quran and the Hadith that call for the education of both men and women, noting that “acquisition of knowledge is the duty of every male and female believer.”The breakdown of law and order in Pakistan has occurred over time. But the manifest absence of the government’s writ in many parts of the country is accelerating alarmingly because resources for development are lacking. With almost 50 percent of its 180 million strong population under the age of 29, government priorities need restructuring. Budgets for the education of girls are dropping. Yet they represent the future of Pakistan in fundamental ways. Beyond budgets, the daily lives of the country’s citizens revolve around survival, especially in areas where the Taliban hold sway. Pakistan’s north was always a conservative society. But it was never a place where vigilantism ensured arbitrary enforcement of codes of behavior. Responsibility for Pakistan’s destiny extends beyond its borders. The worst elements wreaking havoc in Pakistan were imported into the country from Muslim neighbors who paid their wages in the 1980s. Having dispatched “godless communists” from Afghanistan in 1987, these terrorist elements have turned inward. They are building support within Pakistani cities and offer a future that resembles the Middle Ages, at best.Countries like Saudi Arabia can no longer shrug off their influence over the Taliban. Saudi financial support for Taliban mullahs and mosques is funding the Taliban war on women in Pakistan. The argument that support for the Taliban is not state-sanctioned by the Saudis but merely a spinoff of private donations by rich Saudis is simply not good enough. Concerned outsiders such as the United States can make the case, but in the end it is the business of the Pakistani government and its military to call for transparency and accountability in alms coming from outside. There is sufficient coordination between the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan whereby this domestic implication of Saudi largesse needs addressing. All those who support female literacy and access to education must continue to put this item at the front and center of any assistance to Pakistan. Condemning Malala’s shooting by all concerned in the international community was important. But the final measure of defeat for the Taliban will be reflected in a renewed commitment to girls like Malala living out their dreams of education and professional growth and in making sure that her own words, “I have the right to speak up,” becomes a reality.

Pakistan’s Economic Crisis Aids Extremists

This week's Taliban shooting of a Pakistani girl made headlines and drew worldwide condemnation. The militant group said it targeted the young activist for being "pro-West" and speaking out against the Taliban. Pakistani analysts said years of economic hardship and weak state institutions have given such extremists more opportunities to recruit and operate. According to the International Crisis Group, the combination of conflict and flood-induced hardships, government failure, as well as restrictions on international and local non-profit groups is creating a crisis situation in Pakistan. The group’s analyst Samina Ahmed said radical Islamist organizations are taking advantage of local economic hardship and the resulting anger and alienation to recruit new members and expand their influence. Ahmed acknowledged the civilian Pakistani government has made some progress, but says there are still huge gaps in state delivery. She said even banned terrorist groups are still operating in certain areas, under new names. “The Lashkar-e-Taiba, the renamed Jamaat-ud-Dawa, is very active in areas where it can then exploit people who are in absolute dire need of assistance, it can exploit their needs to then penetrate the area, to broaden their support through its charity fronts,” said Ahmed. Ahmed warned that unless the weight of the law is thrown at these violent extremists, then these groups will become even more dangerous. Lawmaker and parliamentary secretary for Pakistan's foreign ministry Palwasha Khan argued that Pakistan, which emerged from military rule just five years ago, is doing its best in the face of multiple challenges. “We are in a state of war, and nations and countries that are in state of war naturally do have such problems,” said Khan, adding that Pakistan’s fight against terrorists, in which hundreds of militants and soldiers have died, has cost the country dearly. “The international community has to realize the fact that we’ve lost civilians, we’ve lost our economy, and this is a direct repercussion of the war,” Khan said. One of the latest civilians to suffer the consequences is teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, shot in the head in a brazen attack by the Taliban on Tuesday. Yousafzai was an outspoken supporter of girls’ education. The 14-year old girl is currently recuperating in a military hospital near the capital, Islamabad.

Medica Report:Next 36 to 48 hours critical for Malala

Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj-Gen Asim Bajwa said on Friday that Malala Yousufzai’s condition had improved, adding that, that the next 36 to 48 hours were critical.Speaking to media representatives at the ISPR office, the Pakistan army’s spokesman said the 14-year-old activist was undergoing tests and the next 36 to 48 hours would be crucial for her. The army spokesman further said that Malala was still on a ventilator and that the 14-year-old had been shifted to Rawalpindi upon doctors’ instructions. The DG ISPR added that a medical team had been constituted, headed by a Major General, and that the decision to send Malala abroad would be taken by a medical board. Currently, all the doctors on the panel treating Malala were Pakistanis but two foreign doctors were also being consulted on the treatment. Bajwa said efforts were being made to bring the perpetrators behind the incident to justice and requested the nation to pray for Malala’s well being.

"Day of Prayer" Nation prays for Malala's recovery

People across the country are observing Friday as a "day of prayer" for teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, who is in the critical care unit at a military hospital after being shot in the head during an assassination attempt by the Taliban. Special prayers were offered during the morning assembly at all educational institutions for Malala and her two friends who were injured in Tuesday s attack, Dunya News reported. In Lahore, over 50 clerics and scholars of the Sunni Ittehad Council issued a collective fatwa that described the attack on Malala as an un-Islamic act that violated Shariah or Islamic law. The shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai on a school bus in the Swat valley has been denounced worldwide and by the Pakistani authorities. But as she spent a second day in intensive care, questions are mounting about how the attack could have happened in the first place and how the perpetrators simply walked away in an area with a police and army presence. "Now she needs post surgery care. The doctors recommended that AFIC (Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology) has better facilities for post-surgery care," military spokesman Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa told AFP. Another official later confirmed she had arrived by helicopter in Rawalpindi, the twin city of the capital Islamabad and the headquarters of the Pakistan army. Bajwa said Malala was unconscious and that the next 24 hours would be crucial. On Wednesday, she underwent an operation to remove the bullet from between her shoulders in a military hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar. "She has been put on a ventilator for two days. The bullet has affected some part of the brain, but there is a 70 percent chance that she will survive," one of her doctors, Mumtaz Khan, told AFP. Mehmoodul Hasan, one of Malala`s relatives, said the family had been told doctors were sending her medical reports abroad for advice. "They are checking if better facilities are available in the UK or Dubai or any other country, then they will decide about sending her abroad, otherwise they will treat her here," said Hasan. Malala won international prominence after highlighting Taliban atrocities in Swat with a blog for the BBC three years ago, when the militants burned girls schools and terrorised the valley before the army intervened. She was just 11 then, and her struggle resonated with tens of thousands of girls denied an education by militants across northwest Pakistan, where the government has been fighting local Taliban since 2007. The provincial government announced a 10 million rupee ($104,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of Malala s attackers and Interior Minister Rehman Malik has promised to catch the gunmen. He appealed to Pakistanis to pray for Malala s recovery on Friday, when Muslims say their main weekly prayers at mosques. In northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the attack took place, provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that civil servants and schools would observe a one-minute silence on Friday to remember acts of terrorism. Officers in Swat say dozens of people were rounded up after the attack but no one has been charged.

Shun ulemas not condemning Malala attack

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Quaid Altaf Hussain has appealed to the people of all thoughts to shun those ulema and khatibs, who during their Friday sermon don’t condemn the heinous attack on Malala Yusufzai and move to the other mosques where ulemas and khatibs flay this barbaric attack of terrorists. The MQM handout further said that Altaf Hussain has appealed to the ulemas and khatibs of all thoughts to condemn the terrorism of Taliban, who attacked Malala Yusufzai and other little girls and at the same time, pray for the early recovery of Malala and other injured children. He also paid tributes to all those Ulemas and Muftis, who came out openly and issued fatwa against the terrorists, who in fact tarnishing the image of Islam by their such inhuman acts.

Youm-e-Dua for recovery of Malala‚ other girls today

Radio Pakistan

Youm-e-Dua is being observed on Friday for early recovery of Malala Yousufzai and other girls who were injured in a terrorist attack.Youm-e-Dua is being observed on Friday for early recovery of Malala Yousufzai and other girls who were injured in a terrorist attack. The whole nation prays for the early recovery of Malala Yousufzai and continues to condemn the terrorist attack on her. Earlier‚ the National Peace Award winner‚ Malala Yusufzai‚ who was shot and injured in Mingora were shifted to CMH Rawalpindi through a helicopter for further treatment. She remained under treatment at Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar for three days where a bullet was successfully removed from her body by senior neurosurgeons. According to senior neurosurgeon‚ Dr. Mumtaz her health was gradually improving while Dr. Colonel Junaid had termed next ten to fifteen days very crucial for her.

Attack on Malala could be 'turning point' for Pakistan: Khar

As the teenage peace activist Malala Yousufzai recovers in a Rawalpindi hospital, foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar told Christiane Amanpour on CNN that Tuesday’s shooting was a “wake up call” and could present a “turning point” in the war between two futures for Pakistan. Khar, who was speaking to the veteran journalist via video link from Islamabad said that the attack had left her personally and the government “disgusted.” She added that it was a wake up call for not only for the people of Pakistan but to people all over the world that “we have a clear and present danger in terms of people who choose to use violence as a means to follow whatever their agenda and to what extent they would go.” The foreign minister went on to add that this young girl from Swat has managed to clear the fog of war about the Taliban and presented the two clear options for the public in Pakistan. “She has put it as a black and white question. She has put it as either you are with the future that she represents or the future they [Taliban] are trying to impose.” Khar expressed confidence in the way Pakistanis had rejected the Taliban’s justification for the attack and that barring the issue of drones which split the society, the people were unequivocal in fighting the militant mindset. “There is absolutely no doubt in any Pakistani’s mind that this is a force, this is a mindset that is a challenge for Pakistan’s future. This is a mindset that we need to fight with all our will and we endanger ourselves more if we don’t fight it today.” Arresting the perpetrators When Amanpour asked whether any of the attackers have been arrested, Khar said that “they [law enforcement] have made many arrests.” “I just came out of a cabinet briefing where they said they have made many arrests and they will get them,”she assured. Khar went on to explain that a number of groups operated under the umbrella of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the group which has claimed responsibility for the attack on Malala. “Earlier there was a group intending to attack her, and they were taken in before they were able to attack [Malala] and that this was a newer group that emerged,”she said of the attackers. “We are told by the interior ministry that they are confident they will be able to get to the people, the perpetrators,” Khar said, adding that the bigger challenge was the “mindset that has been imposed on Pakistan for the past 30 years.” Another military operation in Swat? When Amanpour asked whether another military operation would be carried out in Swat to clear it of militants, Khar reasoned that military operations are conducted according to requirements of that particular area, at that particular time. “So the timing of that is of course going to be determined and whether it is required in the form that you are mentioning.” Khar though reminded Amanpour that a military operation was carried out two years ago after which militants had been successfully driven out of the valley. However, these militants then found refuge in the Kunar and Nooristan provinces of Afghanistan. “For the last two years Pakistan has on the diplomatic, political and every level has been asking both the Afghan government and ISAF forces over there [Afghanistan] not to take the matter seriously and not let them have safe havens inside Kunar and Nooristan. That they have the ability to strike back at us in Swat and at this girl also,” she said. However, those efforts, Khar lamented, were lost in the quicksand of blame games. “[Attack] is a clear indication that what we need to do is look at this as a challenge to all of us collectively rather than spend time as we have unfortunately in the past as a blame game into who is doing what.”

Malala Yousafzai Video:New York Times documentary