Police arrest 9 in Malala shooting

Pakistani police searched for a science graduate, the main suspect in the attempt to kill teenage activist Malala Yousufzai, while holding nine others. CNN reported police had rounded up nine people in the Oct. 9 shooting in which 15-year-old Malala, now recovering in a hospital in Britain, was critically wounded, but the main suspect identified as Atta Ullah Khan, a master's degree student of chemistry believed to be 23 years old, was being sought in the scenic Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan, where Malala and two other girls were attacked as they rode their school bus. The other two girls were not seriously injured. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the shooting of Malala, who had spoken out against the militant group and advocated education for girls like her. Her struggle has won her worldwide admiration and Pakistanis have strongly condemned the attack on her. Those arrested in the shooting include six men from Swat, CNN reported. Police were also holding the mother, the brother and the fiancée of Khan, the main suspect, but a police official was quoted as saying the three have not been accused of involvement in the shooting. It was not clear what role Khan himself may have played in the attack. The principal of a college, where Khan had studied physics as an undergraduate, said the suspect had given differing dates of his birth, CNN said. The principal, condemning the attack on Malala, expressed surprised one of his former students may have been involved. Malala, who was flown by a special plane to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham after Pakistani doctors removed a bullet from her brain, remained in stable condition Wednesday. Geo News quoted hospital officials that she continues to make good progress. Her family members are currently is in Pakistan and it was not known when they would join her in Birmingham. CNN quoted Dr. Dave Rosser, medical director at the Birmingham facility, that Malala is expected to need "a significant period of rest and recuperation" before undergoing reconstructive surgery. She is now able to move her extremities and stand up with help of nurses, but cannot speak because of a tube in her trachea to protect her airway. The Taliban has said it will try to kill her if she recovers. Malala began speaking out against the Taliban four years ago when her Swat region was under the militants' control. The BBC reported tens of thousands of school students have been displaced along with their families from these areas bordering Afghanistan where the Taliban have sanctuaries despite being driven out from Swat by Pakistani forces in 2009. The report said the militants had destroyed about 1,000 schools since 2006 as part of their campaign against secular education. Pakistan's News International newspaper, quoting sources, reported Thursday that Pakistan, following the Malala incident, will no longer ignore the sanctuaries established by the TTP or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's Swat chapter. "We want to see a visible response from the Afghan government for eliminating the TTP sanctuaries inside Afghanistan," the sources told the newspaper. In other developments, activist Hinna Khan, 17, from the same area of Pakistan as Malala, was warned she would be next, her father said. The threat came during a telephone call made to Hinna's mother two days after Malala was shot, Britain's Guardian reported. Hinna's father, Reyatullah Khan, said, "The Taliban have kidnapped and tortured me in the past for promoting women's development, but now they are threatening the entire family." Khan family members, living in seclusion in Islamabad, Pakistan, after fleeing their home area of Swat, have been active in organizing demonstrations calling for peace and an end to Taliban oppression, the newspaper said.