For days, relatives, friends and much of Pakistan have been waiting for a sign that a 14-year-old blogger and activist will survive being shot in the neck by would-be assassins.

On Saturday, they finally got it.

"She moved her limbs today when doctors reduced sedation to make a clinical assessment," military spokesman Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa said.

Malala Yousufzai remains under the close watch of doctors at a Rawalpindi hospital, as she fights to recover from her attempted assassination on Tuesday. Bajwa said Friday that "the next 36 to 48 hours are important" in deciding whether she makes it through, or not.

Even with the progress, the girl still has a long road ahead. She remained unconscious and on a ventilator Saturday.

Young Malala had become a Pakistani and international icon for her efforts defending the right of girls to go to school where she lives, the Taliban-heavy Swat Valley.

She was riding home in a school van this week in the tense region, which rests along the Afghan border, when gunmen jumped into the vehicle and demanded to know which girl she was. Her horrified classmates pointed to her, and the men fired. Two other girls were wounded, but not seriously.

Since then, supporters have gathered around the country for small vigils to pray for her recovery. Government officials in Peshawar, the main city in the northwestern region where Malala is from, were silent for one minute in her honor.

An international team of neurological specialists said her condition was stable Friday, but they were monitoring her closely. Her family waits, and hopes, yet they are afraid to give away where they are exactly. They're terrified that Taliban who would gun down a teenager wouldn't hesitate to come after them.

Brave blogger

Malala gained fame for blogging about how girls should have rights in Pakistan, including the right to learn. She spoke out in a region of the country where support for Islamic fundamentalism runs high.

"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."

Malala, whose writing earned her Pakistan's first National Peace Prize, also encouraged young people to take a stand against the Taliban -- and to not hide in their bedrooms.

"God will ask you on the day of judgment where were you when your people were asking you ... when your school fellows were asking you, and when your school was asking you," she said in her CNN interview, "['Why] I am being blown up?'"

The Taliban believe no girl should be educated, and they've threatened that if Malala survives, they will murder her.

Despite the threat, some Pakistani schoolgirls are saying Malala's shooting won't stop them from continuing their education.

"In our society, girls don't have rights and they don't get to study, but I think that's completely wrong," one of the girls told a CNN reporter. "I think we have the same rights as men and we will stand up for our rights. And we will go out and encourage all girls to study."

Police make arrests, close in on attackers

Police arrested 200 suspects, but released all but 35. Those still in detention gave police information that led to the arrest of three more suspects, said Ghulam Muhammad, a local government official.

Though many Pakistanis are appalled by the attack, the Taliban have kept up their vicious comments, saying that they figured shooting the teenager would have an impact in the West.