Malala Yousafzai: Pakistani Taliban Who Shot Teen Educational Activist Arrested

Pakistan officials have arrested a group of Taliban militants who are believed to responsible for the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, a teenager educational campaigner, according to Pakistan's army.

Malala was shot in the head in October 2012 by gunman who boarded her school bus. Two other schoolgirls were wounded in the attack. Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack but no one was arrested.

"She was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban and she was calling President Obama her ideal leader," Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Taliban spokesman, said in a statement justifying the attack. "She was young but she was promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas."

The ten-people gang involved in the murder attempt was busted after one of them was detained by authorities and confessed. Weapons were also recovered. Asim Bajwa, head of the army's press wing, said the Taliban gang, known as Shura, was headed by a furniture-shop owner.

The group, which will be tried on terrorism charges, also planned to murder 22 other local figures from the Swat area under the instructions of Mullah Fazlullah, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban.

After the attack, Malala was airlifted to Britain for treatment and successfully underwent two surgeries. Since then, the 17-year-old became a symbol for women's rights to education worldwide.

She was named one of Time magazine's 2013 most influential people, was a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize and has just released an autobiography. She is now based in Birmingham in the UK and is unable to return to her homeland due to Taliban death threats against her and her family.