Islamabad, Pakistan - Ten men have been convicted and sentenced to life in prison by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court in connection with an attack on Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, court officials have told Al Jazeera. 
 
 Yousafzai was shot and critically wounded in a targeted attack on her life on October 9, 2012. Two schoolmates were also wounded. 
 
 On Thursday, Amin Kundi, a judge at the anti-terrorism court in Yousafzai's native Mingora, sentenced the 10 men to life imprisonment for their involvement in the attack, for which the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility. 
 
 Life imprisonment in Pakistan is a period of 25 years. 
 
 The court named the convicted men as Bilal, Shaukat, Salman, Zafar Iqbal, Israr-ul-Rehman, Zafar Ali, Irfan, Izharullah, Adnan and Ikram. 
 
 They are said to be from various parts of the Swat Valley, and to belong to the TTP. 
 
 Four others have evaded capture and are widely believed to be hiding across the border in Afghanistan. 
 
 Taliban chief's orders 
 
 Last September, the Pakistani military said it had arrested the men, and that they had received their orders directly from Mullah Fazlullah, the chief of the TTP. It said that it had also recovered the weapons used in the attack from the now convicted men. 
 
 The military said the first man to be arrested was Israr-ur-Rehman, who was one of the two men who fired the shots on Yousafzai, as well as her classmates Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan. Rehman then gave up the identities of the others involved in the plot, according to the military. 
 
 Izharullah was named by authorities as the second gunman in the shootings. Zafar Iqbal was named by the military as the leader of the TTP cell that carried out the attack. 
 
 Of the three wounded girls, Yousafzai suffered the most serious injuries. She was rushed first to a Pakistani military hospital and then to the UK for further treatment. 
 
 She has since made a full recovery, launching the Malala Fund, a global NGO, which invests in education projects around the globe. 
 
 She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2014, alongside Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi, but remains unable to return home, due to continuing threats against her life. 
 
 Follow Asad Hashim on Twitter: @AsadHashim 

 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai waves as she arrives on stage at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo December 11, 2014. 
 
 PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani court jailed 10 men for 25 years each on Thursday for involvement in the 2012 shooting of teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, targeted for her campaign against Taliban efforts to deny girls education. 
 
 Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for attacking Malala as she traveled home from school in her home in Swat, northwest of the capital, Islamabad. 
 
 "Judge Mohammad Amin Kundi in his verdict gave 25 years jail to all of these people," said a court official in Swat, where the 10 were convicted in an anti-terrorism court. 
 
 They were the first convictions for the attack. 
 
 Malala was seriously wounded and airlifted to Britain for treatment, where she now lives. Two other schoolgirls were wounded. 
 
 Since then, Malala has become a symbol of defiance in the fight against militants operating in ethnic Pashtun areas in northwest Pakistan. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. 
 
 A security official said none of the four or five men who carried out the attack on Malala was among the 10 men sentenced on Thursday. 
 
 "But certainly they had a role in the planning and execution of the assassination attempt on Malala," said a police official in Swat who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the media. 
 
 Police believe the gunman who shot Malala escaped across the border into Afghanistan. 
 
 Several people, including Pakistani Taliban leader Fazlullah, are wanted in connection with the attack on Malala. 
 
 Fazlullah, a fiery preacher from Swat, is also believed to be hiding out in eastern Afghanistan. 
 
 Malala is unable to return to her homeland because of Taliban threats to kill her and her family members. 
 
 (Reporting by Jibran Ahmad; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Jeremy Laurence) 

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Malala Yousafzai was seriously injured in the 2012 gun 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. 
 
 Analysis: M Ilyas Khan, BBC News, Islamabad 
 
 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. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Malala was shot on her way home from this school in Mingora 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption The 15-year-old had campaigned for the right of girls, like these in her home town, to access education 
 
 The men were tried in an anti-terrorist court in Swat, in north-west Pakistan. 
 
 The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that no local journalists were aware that the court case was taking place, so there is uncertainty as to the exact charges the men were facing and who the witnesses were. 
 
 A lawyer from the local District Bar Association told the BBC that "there were no open hearings". 
 
 Those convicted "had a role in the planning and execution of the assassination attempt on Malala", a police official in Swat told Reuters. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption The Yousafzai family's home town, Mingora, is in Pakistan's Swat valley 
 
 Death threats 
 
 Pakistani officials believe local Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah ordered the attack. He is thought to be in Afghanistan. 
 
 Ms Yousafzai, now 17, was treated for her injuries in the UK and currently lives in Birmingham with her family. They are unable to return to Pakistan because of Taliban death threats. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Malala Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her campaigning work 
 
 Profile: Malala Yousafzai 
 
 1997: Born in Swat Valley, Pakistan 
 
 2009: Wrote anonymous BBC blog about life under the Taliban 
 
 2009-10: Identity revealed in TV interviews and a documentary 
 
 2011: International Children's Peace Prize nominee 
 
 2012: Shot in assassination attempt by Taliban 
 
 2013: Addresses the United Nations 
 
 2014: Becomes youngest ever winner of Nobel Peace Prize 
 
 2015: An asteroid is named after Malala 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Malala Yousafzai addressing the UN on her 16th birthday 
 
 Pakistan's mountainous Swat valley was overrun by the Taliban from 2007 to 2009. 
 
 It was the threat by Mullah Fazlullah to close down schools offering girls education that led to Malala's diary for BBC Urdu, which was written when she was just 11 years old. 
 
 The blog, which described life under the Taliban, was anonymous, but the schoolgirl also began to campaign publicly for children's rights. 
 
 'Who is Malala?' 
 
 Image copyright Queen Elizabeth Hospital Image caption Malala (shown in 2012) underwent further surgeries at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham 
 
 By the time Malala was shot in October 2012 most militants had been cleared from the valley by Pakistan government forces - but people who spoke out were still at risk. 
 
 Malala was travelling home from school in the town of Mingora when her bus was flagged down. 
 
 A group of gunmen asked "Who is Malala?" and opened fire. 
 
 Two of her classmates were also injured in the attack. 
 
 Shazia Ramzan and Kainat Riaz have recovered from their injuries and are now studying at Atlantic College in Wales.
– Ten men will serve 25 years in prison, Pakistan's equivalent of a life sentence, for the 2012 shooting of Malala Yousafzai and her classmates. Members of the terror group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan were convicted and sentenced in an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan yesterday, Al Jazeera reports. Arrested in September, they helped plan and execute the assassination attempt based on orders from the group's chief, who was not among those convicted and is believed to be in Afghanistan, the BBC reports. An official tells Reuters the men who actually shot Malala weren't convicted, either. Malala went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize and has an asteroid named after her.