Updated on
Summary Pakistan students organized a candlelight vigil for Malala Yousufzai.
The candlelight vigil was organized by the Pakistani students of the prestigious Georgetown University in Washington, DC in order to show solidarity with Malala Yousufzai. everal other students from South Asian countries as well as their fellow American students also attended and lit candles for her.They participants of the vigil also wrote messages for her, which will be sent to her family, and raised placards in support of female education. They termed the attack on Malala as tragic and said that they had felt the need to come out in support of her as well as other girls of Pakistan through this gesture. The staff of Pakistani embassy was also present.It may be mentioned here that Malala was shot by Taliban in Swat on October 9th for advocating female education and is now under treatment in UK after a bullet was successfully removed from her head. Two other students were also injured in the attack.On the other hand, American-Pakistan Foundation has also launched a Malala Campaign with an envisioned objective of empowering one million girls in Pakistan by 2018. For this purpose, they have also set-up two funds by the name of Malala Fund for Education and Malala Fund for Conflict Victims.According to the APF, Malala Fund for Education will provide education opportunities and scholarships to young girls while Malala Fund for Conflict Victims will provide support to girls affected by terrorism in Pakistan. It will help them resume their normal lives with the provision of medical, psychological, social and economic assistance, the organization hoped.The American Pakistan Foundation has worked extensively in the Swat valley after the Taliban crisis and the flooding disaster. We will leverage our experience working in the Swat valley to garner support for providing opportunities to young girls, particularly those from underprivileged areas and backgrounds, they maintained. .Meanwhile, the US State Departments spokesperson, Victoria Nuland also expressed hope for Malalas complete recovery. We are obviously continuing to hope for Malalas full recovery, she said during a briefing Wednesday.However, she was reluctant to comment on the reports of some arrests made in Malala shooting case. The responsibility of law enforcement in this case is with Pakistanis, so I am going to send you to them (for this answer), she remarked.- Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC
