ISLAMABAD: Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai returned to Pakistan on Thursday, officials said, in her first visit to her native country since she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman for advocating education for girls in 2012.
Precize details of her itinerary have been “kept secret in view of the sensitivity surrounding the visit,” a government official said of the trip, which is expected to last four days and include a meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
Accompanied by her parents, the 20-year-old Yousafzai was escorted through Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport under tight security, according to still photographs broadcast on local television.
Malala has become a global symbol for human rights and a vocal campaigner for girls’ education since a gunman boarded her school bus in the Swat valley on October 9, 2012, asked “Who is Malala?” and shot her.
She was treated for her injuries in the British city of Birmingham, where she completed her schooling.
Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, she has continued her campaigning while pursuing her studies at Oxford University.
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Malala makes first trip to Pakistan since Taliban attack
Malala makes first trip to Pakistan since Taliban attack
Pope Leo appeals for end to ‘spiral of violence’ after Iran strikes
- ‘Stability and peace are not built through mutual threats or through weapons … but only through reasonable, genuine, and responsible dialogue’
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo said on Sunday that he is following events after US-Israeli strikes against Iran with “deep concern” and made an impassioned appeal to stop what he called a “spiral of violence.”
“I address a heartfelt appeal to the parties involved to assume the moral responsibility to stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” said the pope.
“Stability and peace are not built through mutual threats or through weapons ... but only through reasonable, genuine, and responsible dialogue,” the pope said during his weekly address to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square after a Sunday prayer.
“I address a heartfelt appeal to the parties involved to assume the moral responsibility to stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” said the pope.
“Stability and peace are not built through mutual threats or through weapons ... but only through reasonable, genuine, and responsible dialogue,” the pope said during his weekly address to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square after a Sunday prayer.
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