Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani on Wednesday condemned the attack on Malala Yousafzai as a “heinous act of terrorism” and said it had exposed the “extremist mindset” that was plaguing the country. During a visit to CMH Peshawar to meet the 14-year-old Malala who was shot and seriously injured by the Taliban on Tuesday, Gen Kayani said incidents like the attack on Malala clearly exposed the extremist mindset the nation was facing. The ISPR said Gen Kayani stated the terrorists had underestimated the resolve and resilience of the people. “It is time we further unite and stand up to fight the propagators of such barbaric mindset and their sympathizers,” he said. “We wish to bring home a simple message: We refuse to bow before terror. We will fight, regardless of the cost, we will prevail Insha Allah.” Gen Kayani said, adding that the “cowards who attacked Malala and her fellow students have shown time and again how little regard they have for human life and how low they can fall in their cruel ambition to impose their twisted ideology”. He said Malala had become a symbol for the values that the army, with the nation behind it, was fighting to preserve for our future generations. “These are the intrinsic values of an Islamic society, based on the principles of liberty, justice and equality of man,” he said. General Kayani said this was not the first time the militants had targeted children and he referred to an attack on a mosque in Rawalpindi as “a painful reminder of their bloodlust”. He said the militants had no respect even for the golden words of the Prophet (PBUH) that “the one who is not kind to children, is not amongst us”.
‘Taliban underestimate people’s resolve’
