Rashid Mahmood / AFP - Getty Images

Students recite verses from the Quran as they pray for Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head in a Taliban assassination attempt, at her school in Mingora, the main town of Swat Valley on Friday

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Three suspects in the shooting of 14-year old Pakistani peace campaigner Malala Yousufzai have been arrested, police in Swat Valley claimed Friday.

Police said the suspects, aged between 17 and 22, had claimed the person who organized the attack Tuesday -- in which two other young girls were shot and injured -- was a man called Attaullah.

"During raids in Swat on Thursday night, we captured three culprits involved in attack on Malala,” Swat police chief Gul Afzal Afridi told NBC News by phone.

“During initial interrogation, they revealed that Attaullah was mastermind of the attack and he is still at large,” he added.

Afridi said that the attackers were from the Sangota area of Swat. Police were conducting other raids in an attempt to find Attaullah.

The Malala Yousufzai I know

The Swat-based Pakistani Taiban refused to confirm if any of their members have been arrested, but claimed they had "dozens" of trained gunmen in the area.

'Satisfactory' condition
Malala, who was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize in 2011 for articles she wrote under a pseudonym for U.K. broadcaster the BBC and won the National Peace Prize in Pakistan,  was in a "satisfactory" condition at a military hospital, a spokesman said Friday. She started writing for the BBC when she was just 11.

Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa said she was being kept unconscious and on a ventilator, and doctors would decide when to take her off.

"Her blood pressure is normal. Heartbeat is normal, and thanks to God, her condition is satisfactory," Bajwa said.

Bajwa said the bullet entered her head and went into her neck toward her spine, but it was too soon to say whether she had any significant head injury.

Reuters reported Friday that the attack was ordered by one of the Taliban's most feared commanders, Maulana Fazlullah.

 "We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she would not stop (speaking against us)," said Sirajuddin Ahmad, a spokesman of Swat Taliban now based in Afghanistan's Kunar province.

Veronique De Viguerie / Getty Images, file

Three suspects in the shooting of 14-year old Pakistani peace campaigner Malala Yousafzai have been arrested.

'I am Malala' declare protesters as vigils continue for girl shot by the Taliban

He said the Taliban held a meeting a few months ago at which they unanimously agreed to kill her. The task was then given to military commanders to carry out.

The shooting sparked widespread condemnation and there has been an outpouring of praise for her bravery from Pakistani and international leaders.

The school she attended in Mingora, owned and operated by her father, reopened Friday. The atmosphere was grim as children and teachers tried to come to terms with what happened to their star pupil.

"We have decided to open the school after two days to overcome the fear among our students that gripped them due to the attack. The number of students is low today. We have not resumed regular teaching activity, but held an assembly to pray for Malala and the other two injured girls," said one of the teachers, Zafar Ali Khan.

Police had been deployed around the school, but even so, many students stayed away.

"Although we have gathered here for to pray for Malala, this shows we will keep her mission going," Ayesha Khan, a ninth-grade student. "Many of the students haven't come due to fear, but I believe this fear will subside ultimately." 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari ordered Tuesday that the young Pakistani activist who was seriously injured in a shooting by the Pakistani Taliban be sent abroad for medical treatment, the website for Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported.

Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old Pakistani activist who won international acclaim for her work promoting peace, and two other young girls were shot and seriously injured Tuesday, police and hospital officials said.

Local police and hospital officials told NBC News that Malala was shot after leaving her school in the Swat region.

Official sources told Dawn that the single bullet, which hit Malala's head, had pierced down to her backbone.

“We have thoroughly examined her, she is in critical condition. The bullet traveled from her head and then lodged in the back shoulder, near the neck,” a doctor told the AFP agency, according to Dawn, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media.

“Next three to four days are important for her life. She is in the intensive care unit and semi-conscious, although not on the ventilator,” he added, according to Dawn.

“In such a condition, she immediately needs a sophisticated surgical procedure, which is not possible in the country,” sources told Dawn.

Malala was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize in 2011 for a blog she wrote under a pseudonym for the BBC. She also won the National Peace Prize in Pakistan, was honored with a school named after her, and quickly became an outspoken critic of the Taliban in Pakistan and a public advocate for peace.

In the blog, she chronicled life in the Swat Valley under the brutal and oppressive rule of the local faction of the Pakistani Taliban, who carried out public floggings, hung dead bodies in the streets, and banned education for girls.

AFP

Soldiers take Malala Yousafzai, 14, to an army hospital after a gunman attacked her and two other girls in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Tuesday.

Obama her 'ideal' leader
In early 2011, the militants had added Malala to their hit list. 

"We wanted to kill her as she was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban and more important she was calling President Obama as her ideal. She was young but was promoting a Western culture in the Pakhtun populated areas," Ihsanullah Ihsan, the spokesman of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP said Tuesday.

Veronique De Viguerie / Getty Images, file

Malala Yousafzai, pictured here at the age of 12 in March 2009, was undergoing surgery after she was shot twice Tuesday.

The Taliban had made a plan for killing her a year ago but were waiting for an opportunity, he told NBC News.

Malala was initially treated at the Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital, in Mingora, the main city of Swat, but was airlifted to a hospital in the larger city of Peshawar.

'New radicals': Pakistan's Generation Y battles to shape country's future

A police official, quoting other students who witnessed the shooting, said some people came in a car and stopped in front of the school and then asked them to identify Malala.

"Since the students already knew about threats to Malala Yousufzai's life, therefore they said they didn't know her," the police officer said.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Arshad Arbab / EPA

Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

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But he said Malala was shot when she came out of the school and got in a school van.

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The young girl's stark depictions of daily life in Swat -- as Pakistan’s army carried out a massive military operation against the Taliban in the area -- led her to become the first Pakistani girl nominated for the children's peace prize.

She began writing the diary for the BBC when she was just 11.

In one posting on her BBC blog, she wrote: "My younger brother does not like going to school. He cries while going to school and is jubilant coming back home ... He said that whenever he saw someone he got scared that he might be kidnapped. My brother often prays 'O God bring peace to Swat and if not then bring either the U.S. or China here.'"

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