New facts emerged on Friday that only two out of the ten men arrested in connection with the attempted assassination of Pakistani school girl, Malala Yousafzai, were convicted.

In April, the Pakistan government said that 10 Taliban fighters had been convicted and received 25-year jail terms for the crime.

However, sources confirmed to the BBC that only two of the men who stood trial were actually sent to jail.

Muneer Ahmed, a spokesman for the Pakistani High Commission in London, told the BBC on Friday that eight of the suspects were acquitted because of a lack of evidence.

Saleem Marwat, the district police chief in Swat, Pakistan, also confirmed that only two men were convicted in the case that attracted global attention.

Sayed Naeem, a public prosecutor in Swat, told the Associated Press that each militant got 25 years imprisonment for his part in the crime.

In Pakistan, a life sentence is 25 years.

The acquittals allegedly emerged after reporters from the London-based Daily Mirror failed to locate the 10 alleged convicts in prisons across Pakistan.

The secrecy surrounding the trial, which was held behind closed doors in a military facility rather than the regular court, made many doubt the fidelity of its outcome globally.

There was a total blackout on information throughout the trail period and journalists were not allowed to cover any of the proceedings.

In Pakistan anti-terrorism trials are not open to the public.

The whereabouts of the eight acquitted men is not known.

Malala is known mainly for advocacy for girl-child education and for women empowerment in her native Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban kick against girls attending school.

On October 9, 2012, Yousafzai was shot by a gunman who fired three times at her skull. The attack left her unconscious and in critical condition, but later her condition improved when she was sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, for intensive care.

The assassination attempt sparked a global show of support for Yousafzai, who was recently selected as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Persons in the World.