Pak court sentences ten to 25 years for attack on Malala

Ten Pakistani Taliban militants were on Thursday sentenced to 25 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court for their 2012 gun attack on Malala Yousafzai, the teenage child rights activist who last year won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The ATC in Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province announced the judgment after trial of the accused, finding ten guilty and handing down 25 years imprisonment to each of them, a district official from Swat said.

Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants had claimed responsibility of the attack on Malala in October 2012. Malala, who was 15 at the time, was shot in the head on board her school bus in the Swat valley. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 along with India's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi for campaigning for children's rights, despite the risk to her life.

Pakistan army said in September, 2014 that it arrested ten men involved in the attack on the 17-year-old activist. Officials said the 10 men, who do not include the man named as chief suspect, belonged to the TTP.

Ataullah Khan, a 23-year-old militant, was identified by a police report at the time of the shooting - but he did not appear in the list of ten men convicted. The activist survived the gun shots and recovered after treatment first in Pakistan and later in the UK, where she lives with her family. Malala won worldwide acclaim for standing up for the right to education of girls in Swat valley in 2007 when Taliban controlled the region. 

Also Read: Malala condemns killing of Pakistani rights activist Sabeen Mahmud