LONDON -- Malala Yousafzai, the teenage education-rights campaigner who was shot in the head by the Taliban in Pakistan, has been able to stand for the first time since the attack and is communicating by writing, a British hospital official said Friday. 
 
 But the 14-year-old whose plight has aroused international concern is still fighting an infection caused by the bullet that entered her skull, burrowed through her jaw and lodged in her shoulder blade, said David Rosser, medical director at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, in central England. Malala was flown to the hospital this week to receive treatment. 
 
 Rosser said she continued to show signs of improvement since waking from a long anesthesia. 
 
 "One of the first things she asked the nurses was what country she was in," he told reporters, adding: "She's closer to the edge of the woods, but she's not out of the woods." 
 
 The teenager was shot in a school bus in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where she had risen to prominence by courageously advocating the right to education for girls despite the fanatical Taliban's sway over the region. The Taliban has vowed to finish her off, prompting tight security at the Birmingham hospital. 
 
 PHOTOS: Pakistani teen shot by Taliban 
 
 But far from quashing Malala's cause, the attack sparked huge rallies across Pakistan and the rest of the world on her behalf. Rosser said she was "keen to thank people" for their outpouring of support and wanted the world to be kept apprised of her condition. 
 
 He said that scans had shown some damage to her brain, which was grazed by the bullet. But encouragingly, "at this stage we're not seeing any deficit in terms of function. She seems to be able to understand; she has some memory. ... She's able to stand. She's got motor control, so she's able to write." 
 
 Malala appears to have some recall of the attack, but those around her are refraining from bringing up the topic, Rosser said. 
 
 "From a lot of the work we've done with our military casualties, we know that reminding people of traumatic events at this stage increases the potential for psychological problems later," he said. 
 
 A tube in her trachea makes it impossible for her to speak, but the hospital is trying to arrange for her to listen to her father on the phone. Her family remains in Pakistan; efforts are underway to bring them to Britain to be at her bedside. 
 
 Rosser said the girl would require a couple of weeks of recuperation before surgeons try to reconstruct the damaged part of her skull and possibly her jaw. 
 
 "It would be over-optimistic to say that there are not going to be further problems," Rosser said. "But it is possible she’ll make a full recovery." 
 
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 Photo: Women in the British city of Birmingham hold a vigil Thursday for wounded Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, who is receiving treatment at a hospital in the city. Credit: Gavin Fogg / AFP/Getty Images ||||| A Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taleban showed signs of improvement by moving her limbs Saturday, the military said, though she remains unconscious and on a ventilator. 
 
 The shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who campaigned for the right to an education, has been denounced worldwide and by the Pakistani authorities, who have offered a reward of more than $100,000 for the capture of her attackers. 
 
 “The sedation given to Malala was reduced on Saturday so that neurosurgeons could do their clinical assessment and as a result of it Malala responded and moved her hands and feet,” military spokesman Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa said. 
 
 “It is a positive development,” Bajwa told a press conference near Army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, close to the capital Islamabad, where Malala is being treated in a military hospital. 
 
 “As per doctors, (the) condition of Malala is stable.” 
 
 A team of specialist doctors are providing “constant care” to Malala and all “contingencies” were in place in case they decide to move her abroad for further treatment, the general said. 
 
 “It is a case of serious head injury and the progress is very slow in it.” 
 
 Two other girl students wounded with Malala were “also being taken care of at places where they can get best treatment”, he said, without elaborating. 
 
 Bajwa said that all available resources were being used to investigate the incident and some arrests had been made, but he declined to say how many people were currently in custody and how many had been let go. 
 
 Asked whether the military might now consider launching an offensive against the Taleban in their tribal area stronghold of North Waziristan, on the Afghan border, Bajwa said: “Such decisions are not taken overnight.” 
 
 A military statement earlier said: “(The) health condition of Malala continues to remain satisfactory. Her vitals are okay and she is still on ventilator.” 
 
 Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf visited Malala on Friday, paying tribute to her and two friends who were also wounded when a gunman boarded their school bus on Tuesday and opened fire. 
 
 “It was not a crime against an individual but a crime against humanity and an attack on our national and social values,” he told reporters, pledging renewed vigour in Pakistan’s struggle with Islamist militancy. 
 
 Bajwa Friday said the next 36 to 48 hours would be critical for Malala. 
 
 The attack has sickened Pakistan, where Malala won international prominence with a blog for the BBC that highlighted atrocities under the Taliban who terrorised the Swat valley from 2007 until a 2009 army offensive. 
 
 Activists say the shooting should be a wake-up call to those who advocate appeasement with the Taleban, but analysts suspect there will be no seismic shift in a country that has sponsored radical Islam for decades. 
 
 Schools opened with prayers for Malala on Friday and special prayers were held at mosques across the country for her speedy recovery at the country’s top military hospital in the city of Rawalpindi. 
 
 The Defence of Pakistan Council, an Islamist alliance which earlier this year carried out major rallies across Pakistan against the resumption of NATO supply lines through the country cautioned against the attack on Malala being used as a reason to launch fresh military offensives against militants. 
 
 “We strongly condemn this attack, but it should not be used as a pretext to launch military offensive in North Waziristan,” alliance chairman Maulana Samiul Haq told a press conference in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir. 
 
 “It would be suicidal and affect the entire country. We appeal to the military not to commit any such mistake,” Haq said. 
 
 “The way (US President Barack) Obama has responded to the incident clearly indicates the intentions. We will not let it happen,” Haq said. 
 
 “The world does not see or condemn killing of countless innocent girls and children in drone attacks by America, but now they are reacting to this incident,” Haq said. 
 
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 ERROR: Macro /ads/dfp-ad-article-new is missing! ||||| Media caption Malala Yousafzai: ''I want every girl, every child to be educated'' 
 
 Shot Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai has described how a fund has been set up in her name to help all children get an education. 
 
 Malala, 15, was speaking in an interview recorded before surgery at a Birmingham hospital on Saturday. 
 
 She was shot on a school bus in October in Pakistan by the Taliban after campaigning for girls' rights. 
 
 Surgeons at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital said Malala was recovering "very well" from the latest operation. 
 
 A bullet was removed from her head by surgeons in Pakistan, before she was flown to the UK for further treatment. 
 
 Malala was discharged as an inpatient from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in January and underwent a five-hour operation at the weekend to fit a titanium plate over her damaged skull. 
 
 She also had a cochlear implant fitted to deal with some deafness caused by her injuries. 
 
 Speaking in the video in English, Malala said she wanted to "serve the people". 
 
 'New life' 
 
 She said: "Today you can see that I'm alive. I can speak, I can see you, I can see everyone and today I can speak and I'm getting better day by day. 
 
 Image caption Malala has been receiving treatment in Birmingham after she was shot by the Taliban last year 
 
 "It's just because of the prayers of people, because all the people - men, women, children - all of them have prayed for me. 
 
 "Because of these prayers, God has given me this new life and this is a second life. 
 
 "I want to serve the people and I want every girl, every child, to be educated and for that reason we have organised the Malala Fund." 
 
 She also made her comments in Urdu and Pashtu. 
 
 The Taliban said it attacked the campaigner for girls' education for "promoting secularism". 
 
 The first grant from the Malala Fund will go to an organisation in the teenager's home region of the Swat Valley in Pakistan and it aims to encourage girls to go to school instead of going straight into work. 
 
 'Condition improving' 
 
 Those behind the project said it would help enrol selected girls into schools and give them the support to continue with their studies. 
 
 Media caption Consultant neurosurgeon, Anwen White: "She was very focused and enthusiastic." 
 
 It is also expected to work with families to understand the importance of education for their daughters. 
 
 The Malala Fund has been set up by international organisation Vital Voices, which says it helps give women a voice to promote prosperity and peace in their communities. 
 
 A message on the organisation's website said: "We established the Malala Fund on behalf of Malala and her family, working together with supporters of the cause, including the United Nations Foundation and Girl Up, and within a community of supportive organisations and individuals, to realise Malala's vision of education for all girls." 
 
 In a news conference on Monday, the Birmingham hospital's medical director Dr Dave Rosser said everything had gone "very well" in Saturday's operation and said the teenager's condition was continuing to improve. 
 
 He said: "She went back to the intensive care unit that evening, primarily as a precautionary measure rather than because of any major concerns and she's now back on one of the wards in the hospital and doing very well." 
 
 Consultant neurosurgeon Anwen White said she now did not expect Malala to have to undergo any further surgery. 
 
 Mrs White added that Malala remained "a very happy, very enthusiastic young woman". ||||| She has been adopted as an emblem of peace in a region beset by violence and has provided a voice of quiet protest in a sea of angry rhetoric. Now Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old who was shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to want to go to school, could provide a turning point in Pakistan's history, according to her father. 
 
 Ziauddin Yousafzai, speaking after arriving in Britain to visit Malala with his wife and two sons, said his daughter would not be beaten by the Taliban but would "rise again". 
 
 Clearly moved by the support his family and daughter have received, he said the attack, in which Malala was shot by a Pakistan Taliban gunman while making her way home on a school bus, had united his nation in approbation. 
 
 "When she fell, Pakistan stood and the world rose," Yousafzai told a press conference in Birmingham, where his daughter is being treated after being flown to the UK from Pakistan. "This is a turning point. In Pakistan, for the first time, all political parties, Urdus, Christians, Sikhs, all religions prayed for my daughter." He added: "She is not just my daughter, she is everybody's daughter." 
 
 He thanked all those who supported her cause of "peace and education" (video) and condemned the violence that had been inflicted upon her. 
 
 "An attacker, who could be called the agent of Satan, he attacked," he said. "But after that I found angels on my side, everywhere, all around me, until this time and this place […] I'm thankful to all the people all over the world. They condemned the attack and prayed for my daughter." 
 
 Malala had gained global influence and respect since starting a blog documenting her desire to get an education in her home city of Mingora in the Swat Valley. She wrote compellingly for the BBC about the daily struggles of getting an education in a region where the Taliban has occasionally banned girls from attending school. Gradually she became a more public figure, promoting education for girls in interviews and advising local authorities on education. 
 
 But her own schooling was violently interrupted on 9 October: she was shot at point blank range and two other girls were injured in the attack which the Taliban said was punishment for "promoting secularism". 
 
 The bullet hit her just above the back of her left eye and came within inches of killing her. But as her father put it: "When she fell, the person who attacked her wanted to kill her … She fell temporarily, she will rise again, she will stand again. She can stand now." 
 
 Immediately after the attack surgeons in Pakistan battled to save the teenager's life, performing an emergency operation to remove a bullet lodged in her neck. But with the threat of further retribution hanging over the family, the decision was taken to airlift Malala to Britain, where it was hoped she could recover in peace. 
 
 Her father spoke of the joy of seeing his daughter alive again when they were reunited this week at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham. 
 
 The reunion was particularly emotional, he explained, because the family had started to mentally prepare themselves for her funeral. "A time came … when, God forbid, I told my brother that you should make preparations for her funeral," he said. "To be very short, I can say that she got the right treatment, at the right place, at the right time." He added: "I love her. Last night when we met her there were tears in our eyes out of happiness. For some time we all cried a bit." 
 
 Yousafzai paid special tribute to Dr David Rosser, who is treating Malala, and thanked him for keeping the lines of communication between the UK and Pakistan open since Malala was transferred. 
 
 Rosser said Malala was continuing to make good progress and was now able to eat, talk and walk with only a little help. He added that her short and long-term memory seemed to be fine. "We're very much in a phase of her care that is about her recovery, both physical and psychological," he said. "She's very tired but she managed a big smile for her mum and dad and her brothers." 
 
 Since the attack Malala has been nominated for the International Children's peace prize by Desmond Tutu and has won Pakistan's first National Youth peace prize. Despite promises from the Taliban to kill Malala if she goes back to Pakistan, Yousafzai insisted the family would return home: Malala has already started preparing for her exams.
– The Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban for promoting girls' education rights is in stable condition at a military hospital, the AFP reports. Malala Yousufzai, 14, moved her limbs yesterday but is still unconscious on a ventilator. Doctors had reduced her sedative to let neurosurgeons assess her, "and as a result of it Malala responded and moved her hands and feet," said a military spokesman. "It is a positive development." In other developments: Tens of thousands today marched through Karachi, Pakistan's most populated city, in Malala's name—bringing public outcry to the level of protests over Innocence of Muslims, the AP reports. Pakistan's right-wing Islamic parties may be responsible for the delay; they have shied from criticizing Malala's shooting because they share the Taliban's desire for Islamic law. In Swat Valley, where Malala lived, one of her classmates promised she will return to school with Malala one day. "She will recover and we will go back to school and study together again," Shazia Ramzan told the Daily Mail. In trying to kill Malala, the Taliban turned her into a global icon for the girls' education movement, writes Scott Gold at the LA Times. "The idea has been flourishing in some of the world's most destitute and volatile places," writes Gold. "Today, courtesy of the Pakistani Taliban, it has a face." Click for his full article.