Islamabad:
A government girls' school in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, named after Malala Yousufzai, the teen-aged rights campaigner who was shot and injured by the Taliban, has been upgraded to a higher secondary school.
The Malala Yousufzai Government Girls' Secondary School on Mission Road in Karachi was upgraded on Saturday, Dawn News reported.
14-year-old Malala and her two friends Kainat and Shazia were fired at in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province while they were returning home from school on Tuesday. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting that sparked outrage across the world.
The school was renamed after Malala in July when she attended its inauguration.
The announcement about its upgradation was made on Saturday by Sindh Minister for Education and Literacy Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq at a gathering where students prayed for Malala's early recovery.
The students of the school also collected Rs.50,000 through their own contributions to be sent to Malala's family for her treatment.
Mr Haq said Malala "lit the candle of knowledge and hope" while living among elements who opposed education. Her example would be remembered forever in the country, the Daily Times quoted the minister as saying.
He said the enemies of Malala thought that by targeting the girl, they would defeat her ideology, while the situation, in which each and every girl of Pakistan was vowing to join the struggle, was a "slap" on her enemies' faces.