Pak asks people to observe "day of prayer" for Malala

Islamabad, Oct 12: Pakistani authorities on Oct 11 asked people to observe Friday, Oct 12 as a "day of prayer" for teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, who is in the critical care unit of a military hospital after being shot in the head during an assassination attempt by the

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Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Information Minister of the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, asked people across Pakistan to observe Friday as "Youm-e-Dua" (day of prayers) for the recovery of Malala.

Special prayers will be offered during the morning assembly at all educational institutions for Malala and her two friends who were injured in Tuesday's attack, Hussain said.

"A minute's silence will also be observed in all government offices at noon tomorrow for Malala," he said. Hussain said people should also condemn terrorists during tomorrow's event.

"The prayers of the people are with Malala and the people have condemned the terrorists involved in this incident. The whole world is with Malala and her two friends, and they oppose those who are the enemies of peace," he told a news conference in Peshawar.

In Lahore, over 50 clerics and scholars of the Sunni Ittehad Council issued a collective fatwa that described the attack on Malala as an un-Islamic act that violated Shariah or Islamic law.

The attack on the teenage girl went against Islamic ideals, said the fatwa issued in Lahore. Islam does not bar women from obtaining knowledge and education and it is essential for all men and women to get educated, the clerics said. Islam considers the killing of even one innocent person as tantamount to the killing of humanity, they said.

The fatwa observed that US drone attacks cannot be made an excuse for carrying out attacks on Muslim brethren. However, it noted that the US is an enemy of Pakistan and Islam and cooperation with it is prejudicial to Islam.

PTI