Pakistan court jails 10 for Malala Yousafzai attack

 

A Pakistani court has jailed 10 men for life for involvement in the attack on education activist Malala Yousafzai.

Ms Yousafzai, who was 15 at the time, was shot in the head on board her school bus in the Swat valley in 2012, in an attack that shocked the world.
She was awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for children's rights, despite the risk to her life.
Officials say the 10 men, who do not include the man named as chief suspect, belonged to the Pakistani Taliban.
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 10 men convicted on Thursday.


It may be one of Pakistan's most high profile court cases - but there is little information about it and the sourcing is shaky. Someone leaked the court ruling to a television channel, surprising journalists in Swat.
A press officer for the military first promised a statement giving details of the case, then backed out. Local lawyers declined to offer comments, and judicial officers feigned ignorance about when or where the trial had been held.
There was a similar lack of detail last September when the army first announced it had arrested the 10 men who have now been convicted.
It did not say when and where they had been arrested or how they were linked to the attack on Malala Yousafzai. Besides, their names did not include the ones the country's civilian authorities had earlier identified as Malala's attackers.
This raised eyebrows, and led to speculation that the army may have been keen to show results at a time when it was in the middle of a major operation against militants in North Waziristan, long demanded by Western powers.
The secrecy surrounding the trial and convictions has led to doubts over whether these men are really who the authorities say they are.