RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — The smartly dressed Internet entrepreneur basked in the sun outside a McDonald’s, down the road from Pakistan’s military headquarters, considering the furor over Malala Yousafzai, the schoolgirl who had taken on the Taliban only to be shot in the head.

“We have mixed feelings about Malala,” said the man, Raja Imran, 30, his eyes shaded by sunglasses, fiddling with a pack of Marlboros. “Was it the Americans who shot her or was it Al Qaeda? We don’t know. Some people think this is all an American publicity stunt to make their point against the Taliban.”

And what did he himself think? Mr. Imran shrugged.

Several young customers at the restaurant were similarly ambivalent. Others asked: What about the other two girls wounded in the shooting? “And what about Aafia Siddiqui?” asked one young woman, referring to the Pakistani woman convicted on charges of trying to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents by a New York court in 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison.

“Nobody mentions her,” said the woman, who gave her name as Maria, with a pointed glance before darting away.