Military says Malala is making "satisfactory progress", as teenage activist shot by Taliban struggles for life.
A Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban is in critical
condition and has slim chances of recovering, a source in the hospital
where she is being treated has told Al Jazeera.
The source said on Sunday the next 12 hours were critical for
14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who is hospitalised in the city
of Rawalpindi.
Yousafzai has "very limited chance of life left", said the source,
declining to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the
media.
"[The] face and head swelled alot. Face complexion [has] become dark.
She could be removed from ventilator within a few hours," he said.
The Pakistani military said on Saturday that Malala's condition was
stable. The military spokesperson said that "she was making steady and
satisfactory progress, and possibilities of transfer overseas were still
being considered".
The shooting of Yousafzai, who campaigned for the right for women to
have an education, has been denounced worldwide and by the Pakistani
authorities, who have offered a reward of more than $100,000 for the
capture of her attackers.
'Satisfactory' progress
The military earlier said Yousafzai's "vitals are okay" although they said she was on ventilator.
"A board of doctors is continuously monitoring her condition," the army said.
Raja Pervez Ashraf, prime minister, visited Malala on Friday, paying
tribute to her and two friends who were also wounded when a gunman
boarded their school bus on Tuesday and opened fire.
"It was not a crime against an individual but a crime against
humanity and an attack on our national and social values," he told
reporters, pledging renewed vigour in Pakistan's struggle with so-called
Islamist militancy.
Kainat, one of the other two girls injured in the attack, is in a
stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery within two
weeks. She was shot in her upper right arm.
Shazia, the third victim, is due to be released from the combined
military hospital in Peshawar and return to swat soon, her family told
Al Jazeera.
The attack has sickened Pakistan, where Malala won international
prominence with a blog that highlighted atrocities under the Taliban who
terrorised the Swat valley from 2007 until a 2009 army offensive.
Activists say the shooting should be a wake-up call to those who
advocate appeasement with the Taliban, but analysts suspect there will
be no seismic shift in a country that has sponsored radical Islam for
decades.
Schools opened with prayers for Malala on Friday and special prayers
were held at mosques across the country for her speedy recovery at the
country's top military hospital in the city of Rawalpindi.
Schools open
Local police officials told Al Jazeera that the investigation into
who was responsible for the attack was ongoing. The perpetrators were
witnessed escaping into a nearby slum.
Police had taken in 60 to 70 suspects for questioning, but all were
subsequently released. No one is currently being held in the Swat region
in connection to the shooting.
Schools in Afghanistan opened Saturday with special prayers for the
quick recovery of Yousafzai, in a move officials said was to show
solidarity with her.
"To show sympathy to Malala Yousafzai around 9.5 million students all
over the country in 15,500 schools and education centres offered
prayers for her quick recovery," education ministry spokesman Amanullah
Iman told the AFP news agency.
"The students also expressed their solidarity to their sister
[Malala] because the attack on her was an attack on education," he said.
"Malala is just a girl and student like us, she shouldn't have been shot," Freshta, a 10 grade pupil told AFP.
"Today we recited Quran and prayed for her recovery," she said.
Clerics on Friday declared the attempt on her life, made by Pakistani
Taliban gunmen while the 14-year-old girl was on her way home from
school in the Swat valley, to be "un-Islamic".
The joint fatwa, or religious edict, was issued by at least 50
scholars associated with the Sunni Ittehad Council, and appealed to
worshippers to observe a "day of condemnation" on Friday.
"Islam holds the killing of one innocent person as killing the
entirety of humanity," Hamid Saeed Kazmi, a former religious affairs
minister in Pakistan, told reporters.
-- With additional reporting from Hameedullah Khan and Asad Hashim in the Swat Valley
Vigil for Malala
People in Pakistan light candles in front of a portrait of Malala
Yousafzai as they pray for her well-being in Lahore. Malala, who led
movement for education in Swat valley, has been struggling for life
after she was fatally wounded by Taliban gunmen on October 9.
