Afghan President Hamid Karzai has written letters to top political and religious leaders in Pakistan, denouncing the Taliban attack on a Pakistani teenager who is promoting girls’ education and asking them to help battle extremism in both countries.
Malala Yousufzai, 14, was seriously wounded when a Taliban militant shot her in the head on 9 October on her way home from school. She is widely respected for being an activist for girls’ education in the Swat Valley where she lives, and the rest of Pakistan. The shooting set off an international outcry against extremists.
Karzai’s office said in a statement issued late Saturday that the president wrote that the attack on Yousufzai indicated that both Afghanistan and Pakistan need to take ‘coordinated and serious’ steps to fight terrorism and extremism. Karzai wrote that he views the shooting as an attack on Afghanistan’s girls as well.
‘It is a deplorable event that requires serious attention,’ Karzai wrote. Those upset about the shooting should not be silenced, he wrote, and both Afghans and Pakistanis need to cooperate and fight with strong resolve against terrorism and extremism so that the ‘children of Afghanistan and Pakistan’ can be saved from oppression.
Karzai has been pushing Islamabad to take more action against militant groups that he says hide out in Pakistan and then cross into Afghanistan to conduct attacks on Afghan officials and security forces and on international forces.
The letters were sent to more than a dozen political and religious leaders, including Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari; Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf; Nawaz Sharif, the leader of Pakistan’s Muslim League Party; Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami; Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Q; and Imran Khan, a cricket star who leads the Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
UAE PLANS TO SEND AIR AMBULANCE FOR MALALA
The UAE royal family plans to send an air ambulance for teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, who is on ventilator at a top army hospital in Pakistan after being shot in the head by the Taliban, in case doctors decide to send her abroad for treatment. Visas were being finalised for the special UAE aircraft’s crew and six doctors, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Abu Dhabi, Jamil Ahmed Khan, told Geo News channel. The air ambulance will remain in Islamabad till a decision is made whether she should be shifted abroad. Arrangements have been made to treat Malala at three hospitals in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Khan said. 14-year-old Malala, who along with two of her school friends was attacked on Tuesday last, was making ‘slow and steady progress’ at the military hospital in Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi and her condition was satisfactory. ‘Doctors have reviewed Malala’s condition and are satisfied. She is making slow and steady progress which is in keeping with expectations,’ chief military spokesman Maj Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa said in a statement on Sunday. Malala has been on ventilator since she was shifted from Peshawar to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi on Thursday after doctors removed a bullet lodged near her backbone. Bajwa said recovery from ‘this type of injury is always slow’. Doctors are continuing to monitor Malala’s condition closely.
MQM HEAD RAPS ARMY FOR DOING NOTHING
islamabad: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain launched on Sunday a scathing attack on Pakistan’s armed forces and Islamic clerics for not doing enough to counter the Taliban following the attempted assassination of teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai. ‘May I ask where are Pakistan’s armed forces and its high-ranking [military] personnel who utilise up to 80 per cent of the country’s resources?’ Hussain said while addressing a rally in Karachi on phone from London, where he is in self-imposed exile. Condemning last week’s brutal attack on Malala, he asked why the security forces had not taken steps to protect the people of Pakistan and to eliminate terrorism.
Malala Yousufzai, 14, was seriously wounded when a Taliban militant shot her in the head on 9 October on her way home from school. She is widely respected for being an activist for girls’ education in the Swat Valley where she lives, and the rest of Pakistan. The shooting set off an international outcry against extremists.
Karzai’s office said in a statement issued late Saturday that the president wrote that the attack on Yousufzai indicated that both Afghanistan and Pakistan need to take ‘coordinated and serious’ steps to fight terrorism and extremism. Karzai wrote that he views the shooting as an attack on Afghanistan’s girls as well.
‘It is a deplorable event that requires serious attention,’ Karzai wrote. Those upset about the shooting should not be silenced, he wrote, and both Afghans and Pakistanis need to cooperate and fight with strong resolve against terrorism and extremism so that the ‘children of Afghanistan and Pakistan’ can be saved from oppression.
Karzai has been pushing Islamabad to take more action against militant groups that he says hide out in Pakistan and then cross into Afghanistan to conduct attacks on Afghan officials and security forces and on international forces.
The letters were sent to more than a dozen political and religious leaders, including Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari; Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf; Nawaz Sharif, the leader of Pakistan’s Muslim League Party; Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami; Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Q; and Imran Khan, a cricket star who leads the Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
UAE PLANS TO SEND AIR AMBULANCE FOR MALALA
The UAE royal family plans to send an air ambulance for teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, who is on ventilator at a top army hospital in Pakistan after being shot in the head by the Taliban, in case doctors decide to send her abroad for treatment. Visas were being finalised for the special UAE aircraft’s crew and six doctors, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Abu Dhabi, Jamil Ahmed Khan, told Geo News channel. The air ambulance will remain in Islamabad till a decision is made whether she should be shifted abroad. Arrangements have been made to treat Malala at three hospitals in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Khan said. 14-year-old Malala, who along with two of her school friends was attacked on Tuesday last, was making ‘slow and steady progress’ at the military hospital in Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi and her condition was satisfactory. ‘Doctors have reviewed Malala’s condition and are satisfied. She is making slow and steady progress which is in keeping with expectations,’ chief military spokesman Maj Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa said in a statement on Sunday. Malala has been on ventilator since she was shifted from Peshawar to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi on Thursday after doctors removed a bullet lodged near her backbone. Bajwa said recovery from ‘this type of injury is always slow’. Doctors are continuing to monitor Malala’s condition closely.
MQM HEAD RAPS ARMY FOR DOING NOTHING
islamabad: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain launched on Sunday a scathing attack on Pakistan’s armed forces and Islamic clerics for not doing enough to counter the Taliban following the attempted assassination of teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai. ‘May I ask where are Pakistan’s armed forces and its high-ranking [military] personnel who utilise up to 80 per cent of the country’s resources?’ Hussain said while addressing a rally in Karachi on phone from London, where he is in self-imposed exile. Condemning last week’s brutal attack on Malala, he asked why the security forces had not taken steps to protect the people of Pakistan and to eliminate terrorism.