Nobel laureate Malala ends visit to Pakistan
Malala, who is now studying at Oxford University, visited the PM House and her hometown Swat during the visit.
Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize victor, on Monday returned to London after her first visit to Pakistan since she was shot in the head by Taliban militants for advocating girls' education more than five years ago. She was taken to the United Kingdom for treatment, where she now resides and attends the University of Oxford.
"I am extremely delighted. Peace has returned to Swat because of the invaluable sacrifices rendered by my brothers and sisters", she said at a school outside Mingora, the district's main town, where she was escorted by the Pakistani military. When I asked some questions about its credentials, the anchor said that this is the largest organisation representing 173,000 private schools (mostly English Medium), that they were organising a Black Day on the return of Malala and demanding the ban of the book "I Am Malala", because this book was against Islam.
The brief trip by the 20-year-old Nobel laureate is a highly symbolic moment for Pakistan, which regularly touts Swat as a success story in its long battle with extremism as it defends itself against accusations by the usa and others that its northwest remains a safe haven for militancy.
The visit was kept highly secret and hardly anyone knew until she landed in Islamabad and was driven in security to a hotel.
During the visit, she met PM and visited her hometown Swat.
Mingora is where Malala's family was living and where she was attending school on October 9, 2012, when a gunman boarded her school bus, asked "Who is Malala?" and shot her.
Malala survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban for promoting female education.
In 2014, at the age of 17, Malala became the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, a prize she shared with Indian child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.
"My plan is to return to Pakistan as this is my country".
In 2007, the militants had taken over the area, which Malala affectionately called "My Swat", and imposed a brutal, bloody rule. On Monday, Her uncle Mahmoodul Hassan told The Associated Press that "she is leaving Pakistan with good and memorable memories, but is going back to England because she wants to complete her education there".