Ten jailed for Pakistan Taliban attack on Malala Yousafzai

They are the first convictions for the attack on Malala, who has since become a symbol of defiance and been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

She was travelling home from school when Taliban militants boarded her bus and shot her in the head. She survived after being airlifted to the UK for treatment.

None of the four or five men accused of carrying out the shooting was among the men convicted on Thursday, an anonymous police source said. However, they all “had a role in the planning and execution of the assassination attempt.”

Above: Malala following the 2012 attack by Taliban militants

Atta Ullah Khan has been named as the gunman and it is believed he escaped into Afghanistan. Mullah Fazullah, a cleric in the Swat district of Pakistan where the attack took place, is believed to have ordered the execution and is also wanted by police.

The Pakistan Taliban has no qualms about murdering children, and at the end of last year carried out Pakistan’s deadliest ever terrorist attack, killing 145 people including 132 school children at the Army Public School in Peshawar.

Terrorist violence in Pakistan has been responsible for the deaths of more than 8,000 civilians and more than 2,000 security personnel since the start of 2012.