‘Happiest day of my life,’ says Malala Yousafzai as she returns to Pakistan on a four-day visit
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbas, who met her at his office, said she left the country a 13-year-old, but was now Pakistan’s ‘most famous citizen’.
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai is visiting Pakistan for the first time since she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in the country six years ago, Dawn reported on Wednesday. She met Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi at his office in Islamabad.
The details of her visit have been kept under wraps for security reasons, but she is expected to be in the country for four days.
“I have dreamed of returning to Pakistan for the past five years,” Yousafzai said with tears in her eyes. “Whether I was in a plane or driving in a car in the streets of London, I dreamed of being in Islamabad and Karachi...But finally I am here and very happy.”
She added that it was the “happiest day” of her life “because I have returned to my country, I have stepped foot on my nation’s soil again and am among my own people”. She described Pakistan’s future generations as “the biggest resources we have”.
Prime Minister Abbasi said: “You were a 13-year-old girl when you left and now you are the most famous citizen of the country. The entire world gave you honour and respect and Pakistan will [also]...Now you are not an ordinary citizen, your security is our responsibility.”
It is not yet clear whether Yousafzai will visit her hometown in the Swat Valley – it was here that on October 9, 2012, the gunman boarded her school bus and shot her. She was flown to Birmingham in the United Kingdom soon after for treatment.
Yousafzai, now 20, is visiting Pakistan with her father. She was escorted through Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport under tight security, AFP reported.
In 2014, she became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate when she won the award with India’s Kailash Satyarthi. Yousafzai is currently a student at the Oxford University but continues to campaign for girls’ education.