Protesters support wounded Pakistani teen

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KARACHI, Pakistan, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Thousands of Pakistanis gathered in the streets of Karachi Sunday to show support for a 14-year-old girl shot in the head over her pursuit of an education.

Malala Yousufzai, a teen activist, was wounded by the Pakistan Taliban in an assassination attempt Tuesday while she was riding home in a school van, CNN reported.

Gunmen entered the van and demanded to know which girl was the activist. Her classmates pointed to her, and the men fired. Two other girls were wounded, but not seriously.

Malala gained fame for blogging about how girls should have rights in Pakistan.

"I have the right of education," she said in a CNN interview last year. "I have the right to play. I have the right to sing. I have the right to talk. I have the right to go to market. I have the right to speak up."

At the rally Sunday, Malala's supporters carried massive posters and billboards that said, "Malala, our prayers are with you."

Meanwhile, the teenager was under close watch at a Rawalpindi hospital where she was unconscious and on a ventilator.

"She is making slow and steady progress which is in keeping with expectations," the Pakistani military said in a statement released Sunday. "Recovery from this type of injury is always slow."

During the weekend, the teen moved her limbs after doctors "reduced sedation to make a clinical assessment," giving an indication she may recover, a military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa, said.

"Such cases are very rare, that you get hit directly in the head and you survive," Bajwa. "...We are hopeful. She is getting the best treatment that she could."