Islamabad:
For the first time after Pakistan’s first Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yusufzai Taliban was shot in 2012, he reached her hometown in the country’s turbulent northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday and met family members.
The ‘Don’ newspaper reported that Malala reached Barkana in Shangla district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa by helicopter, where she met her uncle Ramadan and also visited the cemetery, where her ancestors were buried. Surgery was done in Islamabad after recent heart problems of Ramadan.
Amjad Alam Khan, in charge of local Karora police station, told ‘Don.com’ that Malala was accompanied by his father Ziauddin Yusufzai and husband Asir Malik. Malala and Malik were married in 2021.
Alam Khan told that Malala also visited the school and college, which he had established in 2018 to provide free education to about one thousand girls of the district. There was no functional government college for girls earlier in the district.
The police station in -charge said, “Malala inspected the classrooms, met the students and appealed to them to pay attention to studies and future.” He said that Malala Fund will ensure free high level education in college. Malala also went to her grandmother’s house.
Education activist Shahzad Roy was also present on the occasion, who operates the Shangla Girls School and College under Zindagi Trust. Roy told Malala about the facilities provided by the college.
Malala returned to Islamabad after her brief visit. Malala’s first visit to Pakistan was in 2018 after the Taliban attack. After that, in 2022, she came to Pakistan to visit the areas destroyed by unprecedented monsoon rains and floods and meet the victims.
Malala also reached Pakistan in January this year to attend the international conference on the education of girls from Muslim communities in Islamabad.