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Malala Visits Hometown in Pakistan for First Time Since Assassination Attempt

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai via EPA
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai via EPA
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Malala Visits Hometown in Pakistan for First Time Since Assassination Attempt

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai via EPA
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai via EPA

Malala Yousafzai has visited her birthplace in Pakistan’s Swat Valley on Saturday for the first time since she was shot on a school bus by a Taliban militant in 2012.

Her visit was kept under wraps because of security measures.

Yousafzai flew into the region by army helicopter from the capital Islamabad having arrived in Pakistan on Thursday, accompanied by State Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, according to Geo News.

Roads were blocked off in the town of Mingora and security was tight around her former home, now rented by a family friend, Farid-ul-Haq Haqqani.

She was welcomed by relatives, former classmates and friends who greeted her with flowers and hugs.

"It is still like a dream for me, am I among you? Is it a dream or reality," she said.

Malala reiterated her joy of being in Pakistan and her mission of providing education to children. “We want to work for the education of children and make it possible that every girl in Pakistan receives a high-level education and she can fulfil her dreams and become a part of society.”

Yousafzai is widely respected internationally, but opinion is divided in Pakistan, where some conservatives view her as a Western agent.

Swat, a mountainous region which was once a prized tourist destination famed for its pristine scenery, was overrun by the Pakistani Taliban in 2007.

This month, a new girls’ school built with her Nobel prize money opened in the village of Shangla in Swat Valley.

“The people of Swat and the whole of Pakistan are with Malala,” family friend Jawad Iqbal Yousafzai said.

“God willing, we will counter the terrorism and extremism in our region with the weapon of education, with the weapon of a pen, with the weapons of teachers and with the weapons of books.”

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6 Americans Detained for Trying to Send Rice and Bibles to North Korea by Sea

FILE - Neighborhoods of North Korea's Kaepoong village are seen from the observation post in Ganghwa, near the border with North Korea, South Korea, Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
FILE - Neighborhoods of North Korea's Kaepoong village are seen from the observation post in Ganghwa, near the border with North Korea, South Korea, Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
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20
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6 Americans Detained for Trying to Send Rice and Bibles to North Korea by Sea

FILE - Neighborhoods of North Korea's Kaepoong village are seen from the observation post in Ganghwa, near the border with North Korea, South Korea, Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
FILE - Neighborhoods of North Korea's Kaepoong village are seen from the observation post in Ganghwa, near the border with North Korea, South Korea, Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

Six Americans were detained Friday in South Korea for trying to send 1,600 plastic bottles filled with rice, US dollars bills and Bibles toward North Korea by sea, police said.

The Americans tried to throw the bottles into the sea from front-line Gwanghwa Island so they could float toward North Korean shores by the tides, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to media on the issue. According to The Associated Press, he said they are being investigated on allegations they violated the law on the management of safety and disasters.

A second South Korean police officer confirmed the detentions of the Americans.
The police officers gave no further details, including whether any of the six had made previous attempts to send bottles toward North Korea.

Activists floating plastic bottles or flying balloons carrying anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets across the border has long caused tensions on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea expressed its anger at the balloon campaigns by launching its own balloons carrying trash into South Korea, including at least two that landed in the presidential compound in Seoul last year.

In 2023, South Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down a 2020 law that criminalized the sending of leaflets and other items to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech.

But since taking office in early June, the new liberal government of President Lee Jae Myung is pushing to crack down on such civilian campaigns with other safety-related laws to avoid a flare-up in tensions with North Korea and promote the safety of frontline South Korean residents.

On June 14, police detained an activist for allegedly flying balloons toward North Korea from Gwanghwa Island.

Lee took office with a promise to restart long-dormant talks with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. Lee's government halted frontline anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts to try to ease military tensions. North Korean broadcasts have not been heard in South Korean front-line towns since then.

But it's unclear if North Korea will respond to Lee's conciliatory gesture after it vowed last year to sever relations with South Korea and abandon the goal of peaceful Korean reunification. Official talks between the Koreas have been stalled since 2019 when the US-led diplomacy on North Korean denuclearization derailed.