Islamic clerics in Pakistan have issued a 'fatwa' against the Taliban gunmen who attempted to kill the 14 year-old girl
A group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan has issued a 'fatwa' against the Taliban gunmen who attempted to kill a 14 year-old girl who had become famous for campaigning for the right of young girls to an education.
The Islamic scholars from the Sunni Ittehad Council publicy denounced attempts by the Pakistani Taliban to mount religious justifications for the shooting of Malala Yousafzai and two of her classmates as they sat inside a school bus on Tuesday.
A Taliban spokesman issued a statement on Wednesday claiming it was obligatory to kill anyone "leading a campaign" against Islamic law. The movement has also said they would attempt to kill Yousafzai again if she recovers from her injuries.
Hamid Saeed Kazmi, a former religious affairs minister, countered that Islam "holds the killing of one innocent person as killing the entirety of humanity".
The powerful criticism of the Taliban came amid continued outrage over the attack, which has left Yousafzai in critical condition and prompted authorities to offer a reward of $100,000 for the capture of her attackers.
Local police in Mingora, the largest city in Swat, said on Friday they had arrested a number of suspects.
A spokesman for the Pakistani military, which has taken responsibility for her care in one of its hospitals, said the next two days would be critical for Yousafzai as she recovers from surgery that successfully removed a bullet from near her spinal cord.
Across the country a national day of prayer was observed in schools and mosques for the young peace activist who became famous after writing a blog in 2009 for the BBC Urdu service about life under the Taliban insurgency that had gripped her picturesque home region of Swat.
The prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, became the latest leading politician to visit her bedside at the military hospital near the capital Islamabad.
"It was not a crime against an individual but a crime against humanity and an attack on our national and social values," he said.
The story of the young activist who won Pakistan's first ever national peace price continues to dominate news bulletins.
Many commentators and politicians say the public revulsion at the attempted killing of a child could help to stiffen the country's resolve to decisively crack down on Pakistan's militants, which have killed more than 14,000 civilians in nine years by one count.
In an interview with CNN the foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, argued that it could be a "turning point" for the country.
"[Yousafzai] 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 [the Taliban] are trying to impose," she said.
Some newspapers on Friday even suggested the army might now consider mounting operations in North Waziristan, the centre of the country's militancy problem which the military has long resisted confronting despite entreaties from the US.
Sceptics, however, fear nothing will change, noting the handful of tiny public demonstrations on behalf of Yousafzai have been dwarfed by the huge, violent protests that greeted the YouTube trailer for the blasphemous "Innocence of Muslims" film last month.
One human rights activist said that while there was "a great big moderate majority" in Pakistan "it never speaks up".
Several commentators have also noted that although almost all political parties have condemned the act, often in extremely harsh terms, most are unwilling to single out the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, even though it gleefully claimed responsibility.
"It shows that they have not yet really discarded the Taliban," said Zohra Yusuf, head of the Human Rights Council of Pakistan.
She said: "There is fear element as well but they do have a soft corner they have never tried to hide that."