Malala back in Swat: ‘So much joy seeing my family home’

In a visit  marked by much significance for Pakistan’s fight against militancy, the world’s youngest Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai went back to Swat, her hometown in northwestern Pakistan valley, where she was attacked by the Taliban.

Nearly six years after the attack, Malala has not only survived as a symbol of Pakistan’s struggle against extremist mindset but she has shot to global fame as an activist for girls’ right to an education.

Pakistan has been fighting the Taliban, who grouped as TTP and tried to impose their harsh version of Islam on the people of Swat – among them a 14-year-old school girl Malala Yousafzai, who was already highlighting the atrocities of the militants.

Now the valley has been cleared of the vicious militant group but some members of the TTP including Mullah Fazlullah, known as Mullah Radio, have taken refuge in Afghanistan.

Malala survived a gunshot into her head when she was returning from school in 2012, and made an emotional return to Pakistan this week.

Malala flew from the capital Islamabad to Mingora, the main town in Swat valley, by helicopter on Saturday morning.

She briefly met friends and teachers from her old secondary school before heading to an event organized in her honor at a nearby college.

The visit took place under security arrangements.

“I had dreamed of returning to Pakistan for five years,” a tearful Malala said in an emotional speech  her arrival in Islamabad.

In 2014, Malala jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Indian rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, becoming the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Prize.

She is now pursuing a Bachelors degree program at Oxford University in the UK, where she has resided since receiving treatment to her bullet wounds.

She has had a meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Army Chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa during her visit to the native country. She is expected to return to the United Kingdom next week.