Malala's attacker was released in 2009: sources

ISLAMABAD: The alleged organizer of the Taliban shooting of a Pakistani schoolgirl was captured during a 2009 military offensive against the hardline Islamist group but released after three months, two senior officials told Reuters.

They identified the man who planned the attack on 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai only as Attaullah, and said he was one of the two gunmen who shot her on a school bus this month in the Swat Valley, northwest of Islamabad.

Believed to be in his 30s, Attaullah is on the run and may have fled to neighbouring Afghanistan, they said. He organized the attack on the orders of one of the Taliban's most feared commanders, Maulana Fazlullah, officials said.

The attack on Yousufzai, an advocate of education for girls, has drawn widespread condemnation and raised fresh questions about U.S. ally Pakistan's commitment to fighting militancy in the nuclear-armed country.

Doctors treating her in Britain have said Yousufzai, a symbol of resistance to Taliban efforts to deprive girls of education, has every chance of making a "good recovery" after being shot in the head.

The two officials said Attaullah was detained by security forces after a 2009 Pakistani military campaign pushed the Taliban out of the Swat Valley.

"He spent three months in the custody of security forces but was freed after no evidence (of wrongdoing) was found," one official said.

The second source, a senior security official, said authorities had gathered enough evidence to arrest Attaullah after raiding his house in the Swat Valley, a former tourist attraction.

If Attaullah is in Afghanistan, finding him could be difficult. Some of the world's most dangerous militants have operated in the unruly, ethnic Pashtun border area for years, a forbidding area hard for security forces to reach.

The officials said Pakistani security forces were trying other ways to bring him to justice.

"His mother and two brothers were taken into custody to force him to surrender," said the second senior official. "Also two other close relatives of Attaullah have been taken into custody because we heard he spent the night in their house after his escape from Swat."