Eight of the 10 militants reportedly convicted in the 2012 attack on Nobel Peace Prize-winning teenage activist Malala Yousafzai were actually acquitted in April, with only two going to jail, according to Pakistani police.

The announcement Friday from Deputy Chief Azad Khan offered no explanation why police did not correct the record earlier.

In late April, media quoted Pakistani public prosecutor Syed Naeem as saying a court had sentenced all 10 militants to life in prison. The trial was held behind closed doors in a secret location. A life sentence in Pakistan is 25 years in prison.

Yousafzai was shot in the head in the attack by the Pakistani Taliban in valley of Swat for advocating education for women.

However, BBC reported Friday that the court ruling itself says only two men were convicted.

The British broadcaster reported that a spokesman for the Pakistani High Commission in London said the other eight men were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

News of the acquittal of the eight apparently emerged after the Daily Mail tried to find all 10 men in Pakistani prisons, BBC said.

In 2014, Yousafzai, now 17, was co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, sharing it with Kailash Satyarthi, a children's rights activist from India.

She now lives with her family in Birmingham, England.