British campaigners will stage a vigil for Malala Yousafzai on Thursday as doctors said the 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban remained in a stable condition.
Malala spent a third night in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, having been flown to Britain on Monday for specialist care for her injuries.
“Malala Yousafzai’s condition remains stable. She spent a third comfortable night in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and doctors are pleased with her progress so far,” the hospital said in a statement.
“The various specialist consultants from both the Queen Elizabeth and Birmingham Children’s hospitals continue to assess her on a daily basis.”
Her family remain in Pakistan, it added.
The hospital treats British soldiers wounded in Afghanistan.
A vigil will be held for Malala at 1000 GMT by two activist groups, Women2Gether and Amina Women’s Group, outside the main council building in central Birmingham.
Birmingham has a 100,000-strong ethnic Pakistani community — a tenth of the city’s population.
Malala was shot on a school bus in the former Taliban stronghold of the Swat valley last week as a punishment for campaigning for the right of girls to an education, in an attack which outraged the world.
She came to prominence with a blog for the BBC highlighting atrocities under the Taliban, the hardline Islamists who overran the Swat valley from 2007 until an army offensive in 2009.
Hundreds of people have left messages of support on the hospital’s website, lauding her campaigning and praying for her recovery.
Donations towards her care, which is being funded by the Pakistani government, are being received by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s charity.
British vigil for Malala Yousafzai
