Pakistanis rally for girl shot by Taliban

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Tens of thousands rallied in Pakistan's largest city yesterday in the biggest show of support yet for a 14-year-old girl who was shot and seriously wounded by the Taliban for promoting girls' education and criticizing the militant group.

The Oct. 9 attack on Malala Yousufzai on a bus as she was going home from school in the northwest horrified people in and outside Pakistan. It gave hope to some that the government would respond by intensifying its fight against the Taliban and their allies.

But protests against the shooting have been relatively small until now, usually attracting no more than a few hundred people. The response pales in comparison with the tens of thousands who held violent protests in Pakistan last month against a film produced in the United States that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad.

Demonstrations against rampant militant violence in the country in general also have been fairly small, compared with rallies against U.S. drone attacks and the NATO supply route to Afghanistan that runs through Pakistan.

Right-wing Islamic parties and organizations in Pakistan that regularly pull thousands of supporters into the streets to protest against the United States have less of an incentive to speak out against the Taliban. The two share a desire to impose Islamic law in the country, though they may disagree over the Taliban's violent tactics.

The Muttahida Quami Movement, the party that led yesterday's rally, is an exception. Leader Altaf Hussain called Malala's shooting an attack on "the ideology of Pakistan." -- AP