Pakistan PM visits teen shot by Taliban gunmen

USATODAY

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf today visited the bedside of a 14-year-old girl who was shot by Taliban gunmen for her outspoken work on behalf of girls' education.

He was accompanied to a military hospital in Rawalpindi by leaders of allied parties in a show of support for Malala Yousafzai, who was shot Tuesday along with two classmates outside her school in Mingora in the volatile Swat Valley region.

"It was not a crime against an individual, but a crime against humanity and an attack on our national and social values," he says, The Guardian reports.

Malala, who was shot in the head, is being kept unconscious and on a ventilator.

Meanwhile, a group of 50 Islamic clerics issued a "fatwa" against the Taliban gunmen,The Guardian reports.

The sharp move by the clerics comes as police in Mingora say they have arrested two suspects in the shooting of Malala and two classmates and are looking for a third who is being called the mastermind of the attack, NBC News reports.

Update at 1:38 p.m. ET: The "fatwa" was issued by Islamic scholars from the Sunni Ittehad Council and represents the sharpest backlash yet to attempts by the Taliban to justify its attack.

A "fatwa" is a ruling grounded in Islamic law that is issued by an Islamic scholar, but is non-binding for Sunnis. Contrary to popular belief, a "fatwa" is not a death sentence, although it can be. However, it is important in that it represents a finding from a religious perspective and can influence debate on a controversial subject.



A Taliban spokesman has said in a statement that the militant group was obligated to kill anyone "leading a campaign" against Islamic law. It vowed to try again to kill Malala if she survives.

Hamid Saeed Kazmi, a former religious affairs minister, countered the Taliban position by saying that Islam "holds the killing of one innocent person as killing the entirety of humanity," The Guardian reports.



NBC News quotes police in the volatile Swat Valley area as saying they have arrested two suspects, ages 17 and 22.

The pair claim that a man named "Attaulah" is the mastermind of the attack and remains at large.

Update at 11:08 a.m. ET: The Associated Press also reports the arrest of suspects, quoting Mingora police chief Afzal Khan Afridi. But the AP says the police would not provide any details on the number of people detained or what role they allegedly played.

In another development, Taliban spokesman Sirajuddin Ahmad says Malala and her family had been warned three times -- as recently as last week -- before the militants took a decision to try to execute the 14-year-old, the AP reports.

Ahmad says local Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah and his deputies selected three attackers, including two trained snipers, who carefully studied the girl's route home from school.

Original post: The BBC reports that local officials have offered a $105,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the attackers.

Malala was shot by Taliban gunmen angry over her outspoken support for the rights of women and girls, particularly regarding education. Two other girls were injured in the shooting.

Malala, who has been transferred to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi, is being kept unconscious and on a ventilator, says Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, the Associated Press reports.

"Her blood pressure is normal. Heartbeat is normal, and thanks to God, her condition is satisfactory," Bajwa says.

He says a bullet entered her head and went into her neck toward her spine, but it was too soon to say whether she had any significant head injury.

READ: Excerpt from Malala's blog on the Taliban

Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan's foreign minister, says Malala's shooting -- and the Taliban's justification for it -- has been "rejected by all Pakistanis," CNN reports.

At age 11, Malala drew international attention for writing a blog for the BBC Urdu service in which she described life under the Taliban, which took over Mingora and ordered girls' schools closed in 2007. Her articles also led to her nomination for the International Children's Peace Prize in 2011.

Meanwhile, her school, which is owned and operated by her father, reopened today under heavy police presence, the AP reports, but many students stayed away.

Zafar Ali Kahn, one of the teachers, says the staff decided to open the school "to overcome the fear among our students that gripped them due to the attack."

Khan says they did not resume regular teaching, rather they chose to hold an assembly to pray for Malala and two other girls injured in the attack.