MINGORA: An anti-terrorism court sentenced on Thursday 10 militants to life imprisonment for having been involved in the 2012 attack on Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.

Sources said the judge, Mohammad Amin Kundi, announced the judgment at an undisclosed location because of security considerations.

Also read: TTP commander wishes Malala attack never happened

According to unconfirmed reports, the trial was held inside an internment centre set up at the Pak-Austrian Institute for Tourism and Hotel Management in Swat where the militants had been detained.

An official, who did not want to be identified, said the men had been tried under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act.

The convicts were identified as Zafar Iqbal, son of Ahmed Khan; Adnan, son of Bakht Bar; Salman, son of Khana Gul; Irfan, son of Raza Khan; Hazrat Bilal, son of Saeed Ghulam; Izhar, son of Yaqoob; Zafar Ali, son of Rasool Khan; Shaukat Ali, son of Mohammad Khan; Ikram, son of Shahzada; and Israr Rehman, son of Inayat-ur-Rehman.

Attaullah, the prime suspect, has been declared a proclaimed offender.

In September last year, Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Asim Bajwa had announced the arrest of 10 men in connection with the attack on Malala Yousafzai in Swat.

He said the men had been receiving orders directly from Mulla Fazlullah, the fugitive chief of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

Malala was shot in the head when she was returning from school. She was first taken to a military hospital in Peshawar and later flown to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Britain.

She was attacked because she advocated education for children and women.

Malala was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her contribution to the rights of children, especially their right to education.

She now lives in Britain with her family.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2015

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