A Pakistani court has jailed 10 men for life for their involvement in the 2012 shooting of teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted for her campaign against the Taliban denying girls education.

Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for attacking Malala as she travelled home from school in the town of Swat, northwest of the capital, Islamabad.

"Ten attackers who were involved in the attack on Malala Yousafzai have been sentenced to life imprisonment," a court official told AFP news agency. Life prison sentences in Pakistan are 25 years.

News of the sentencing was confirmed by a lawyer present at the hearing in the north-western town of Mingora, as well as a security official.

They were the first convictions for the attack.

A security official said none of the four or five men who carried out the attack on Malala were among the 10 men sentenced.

"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 authorised to speak to the media.

The man suspected of actually firing the gun at Malala, named by officials as Ataullah Khan, is believed to be on the run in Afghanistan, along with Pakistani Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah, who ordered the attack.

Pakistan's military announced the arrest of the 10 suspects in September 2014 as part of an operation that involved the army, police and intelligence agencies.

The army spokesman Asim Bajwa said the group had a hitlist of 22 targets in addition to Malala, all ordered by Fazlullah.

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Malala was seriously wounded in the attack 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 north-west Pakistan.

'I do not even hate the Taliban who shot me'

In an address to the United Nations in 2013, which earned her a standing ovation, Malala said strength, power and courage was born out of her attack.

"I do not even hate the Taliban who shot me," she said.

"Even if there is a gun in my hand and he stands in front of me, I would not shoot him.

"The wise saying, 'The pen is mightier than [the] sword' was true.

"The extremists are afraid of books and pens."

Malala first rose to prominence in 2009, aged just 11, with a blog for the BBC Urdu service chronicling life under Taliban rule in Swat.

"These terrorists are afraid of the power of women and they are not letting us go to school because education will make us more powerful. That's why they stopped us," she once said.

"I realised that education is very important and you must go to school and you must learn and struggle for education."

In October last year, Malala, now 17, became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Malala is unable to return to her homeland because of Taliban threats to kill her and her family members.

Reuters/AFP