Three years after militants > shot Malala Yousafzai — then 14 years old — as she returned in a bus from her school in Pakistan’s Swat district, an anti-terrorism court has sentenced 10 Taliban militants to 25 years in prison.
Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan militants had claimed responsibility for the 2012 attack on Malala, a child activist campaigning for the rights of girls to be educated. Malala — now 17 and an internationally known name, celebrated for her unyielding condemnation of Taliban’s regressive diktats — won the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
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The ATC in Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province announced the judgment after the trial of the accused, finding the 10 guilty and handing down 25 years imprisonment to each of them, an official said.
According to Pakistani newspaper Dawn , ten men have been sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. Bilal, Shaukat, Salman, Zafar Iqbal, Israrullah, Zafar Ali, Irfan, Izhar, Adnan and Ikram all belonged to the Malakand division and had been arrested during joint operations involving the army’s Swat-based formation, ISI, Military Intelligence and police, said Dawn .
Malala, while recounting the terrifying day in October 2012, described how two masked men flagged down her schoolbus and asked 'Who is Malala?' before they opened fire on her and her two classmates Shazia and Kainat.
The Pakistan army said in September 2014 > that it arrested the 10 men involved in the attack on Malala.
Officials said the 10 men, who do not include the man named as chief suspect, belonged to the TTP.
Ataullah Khan, 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 the 10 convicted.
She survived life-threatening gun shots, including one to her head, and recovered after months of treatment. Pakistani doctors removed a bullet that entered her head. She was later flown to Britain and treated for brain trauma care at a Birmingham hospital — in part with the help of induced coma. She only gradually regained her sight and her voice, and three months later, walked out of hospital. She entered Time magazine's list of '100 Most Influential People in the World' in 2013.
“This award is for all those children who are voiceless, whose voices need to be heard,” she had said, when she was conferred the Nobel Peace Prize. “I speak for them and I stand up with them. And I join them in their campaign.”
Rise to Nobel fame
- Blogged about life under Taliban rule for BBC Urdu
- Shot by Taliban gunmen inside school bus in Swat Valley
- UN special envoy for Global Education launches petition 'I am Malala'
Achievements
- Shares Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi
- Leads to Pakistan's first Right to Education Bill
- Makes Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People" list
- Given Honorary Doctorate at University of King's College
- EU's Sakharov Prize
- Pakistan's National Youth Peace Prize
- Nominated for World Children's Prize by Sweden
- Sitara-e-Shujaat, one of Pakistan's highest civilian awards for bravery
Profile
Born in July 12, 1997 Malala Yousafzai has championed the cause of children's education since the age of 11
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