MINGORA: Swat police say they have arrested a number of suspects in the case of a 14-year-old girl shot and wounded by the Taliban after promoting girls’ education and speaking out about Taliban atrocities.

A senior police official in Mingora, Afzal Khan Afridi, said Friday that police made arrests in the shooting of Malala Yousufzai.

He declined to give any details about their number, what role they’re suspected in having in the shooting on Tuesday or how police apprehended them.

Yousufzai and two other girls were shot Tuesday in a school bus on their way home from school. The young activist is being treated at a hospital in Rawalpindi.

'Next 48 hours critical' 

Meanwhile, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj-Gen Asim Bajwa said that Yousufzai’s condition had improved, adding that, that the next 36 to 48 hours were critical, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives at the ISPR office, the Pakistan army’s spokesman said the 14-year-old activist was undergoing tests and the next 36 to 48 hours would be crucial for her.

The army spokesman further said that Malala was still on a ventilator and that the girl had been shifted to Rawalpindi upon doctors’ instructions.

The DG ISPR added that a medical team had been constituted, headed by a Major General, and that the decision to send Malala abroad would be taken by a medical board.

Currently, all the doctors on the panel treating Malala were Pakistanis but two foreign doctors were also being consulted on the treatment.

Bajwa said efforts were being made to bring the perpetrators behind the incident to justice and requested the nation to pray for Malala’s well being.