Malala returns to hometown for first time after attack

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai finally returned to her home village Barkana in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district.

This is first time she returned to her village in 13 years after surviving an assassination attempt by militants.

She was 15 when Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants boarded a bus and shot her in the head in Swat.

“As a child, I spent every holiday in Shangla, Pakistan, playing by the river and sharing meals with my extended family,” she said on X.

“It was such a joy for me to return there today — after 13 long years — to be surrounded by the mountains, dip my hands in the cold river and laugh with my beloved cousins. This place is very dear to my heart and I hope to return again and again.”

Malala was accompanied by her father, husband and brother during her visit.

The area was sealed off for several hours to provide security for her visit on Wednesday, which included a stop at local education projects backed by her Malala Fund.

She went on to become an education activist and the world’s youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner at age 17.