Eight of the 10 men supposedly convicted and jailed for attempting to murder Pakistani schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai were actually cleared, officials said yesterday.

Malala was shot in the head in October 2012 by Pakistani Taliban militants who boarded her school bus in an attack that also wounded two of her friends and shocked the world.

In April, legal and security officials announced that a court had sentenced 10 men to life imprisonment over the attack, following a trial in Malala's hometown of Mingora, in Pakistan's northwestern Swat district.

The suspects had been detained by the army during a major anti-militant offensive and the existence of the trial was kept secret until after its conclusion. No media were present for any hearings.

Salim Khan Marwat, the Swat district police chief, said that contrary to the earlier announcement, the anti-terrorist court had cleared all but two of the suspects.

"Two of them were sentenced to life imprisonment while eight others were acquitted," he told AFP.

"I have no knowledge where the eight persons are now -either in military custody or released."

Azad Khan, the deputy inspector general of police for Malakand division, of which Swat forms a part, confirmed the details and said the trial had been held under military supervision.