عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

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
TT
20
TT

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.”

Most Viewed

 
World

The Scale of Afghans Returning from Iran is Overwhelming, Says UN Official

Afghan refugees who returned after fleeing Iran to escape deportation and conflict arrive at a UNHCR facility near the Islam Qala crossing in western Herat province, Afghanistan, on Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)
Afghan refugees who returned after fleeing Iran to escape deportation and conflict arrive at a UNHCR facility near the Islam Qala crossing in western Herat province, Afghanistan, on Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)
TT
20
TT

The Scale of Afghans Returning from Iran is Overwhelming, Says UN Official

Afghan refugees who returned after fleeing Iran to escape deportation and conflict arrive at a UNHCR facility near the Islam Qala crossing in western Herat province, Afghanistan, on Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)
Afghan refugees who returned after fleeing Iran to escape deportation and conflict arrive at a UNHCR facility near the Islam Qala crossing in western Herat province, Afghanistan, on Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

The pace and scale of Afghans returning from Iran are overwhelming already fragile support systems, a senior UN official warned Tuesday, with tens of thousands of people crossing the border daily exhausted and traumatized, relying on humanitarian aid.

So far this year, more than 1.4 million people have returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan, including over 1 million from Iran.

Iran and Pakistan in 2023 launched separate campaigns to expel foreigners they said were living in the country illegally. They set deadlines and threatened them with deportation if they didn’t leave. The two governments deny targeting Afghans, who have fled their homeland over the decades to escape war, poverty or Taliban rule, The AP news reported.

The UN special representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, called for immediate international support for Afghanistan following a visit to the Islam Qala border crossing in western Herat province near Iran.

The “sheer volume of returns —many abrupt, many involuntary,” should be setting off alarm bells across the global community, Otunbayeva said.

“Without swift interventions, remittance losses, labor market pressures and cyclical migration will lead to devastating consequences such as the further destabilization of both returnee and host populations, renewed displacement, mass onward movement, and risks to regional stability,” she said.

Returns from Iran peaked in June following a 20 March government deadline requiring all “undocumented” Afghans to leave. The UN migration agency recorded more than 28,000 people crossing back into Afghanistan on June 25.

Afghanistan is a ‘forgotten crisis’ Most Afghans depend on humanitarian assistance to survive. But deep funding cuts are worsening the situation, with aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations forced to cut education and health care programs.

Nicole van Batenburg, from the International Federation of the Red Cross, said Afghan children returning from Iran are developing scabies, fever and other illnesses because of deteriorating conditions at the border and the hot weather. Her colleagues were reuniting hundreds of children daily who got separated from their parents.

People lost their belongings and documents in the chaos of hasty exits. Most were only able to take a few suitcases with them, and some were now using their luggage as makeshift furniture.

“Afghanistan is an unseen crisis, and there are so many crises going on at this moment in the world that it seems to be forgotten,” van Batenburg told The Associated Press by phone from the border.

“The problems and the challenges are immense. We’re only talking about the situation here at the border, but these people have to return to some areas where they can live longer and where they can rebuild their lives.”

Last week, the Norwegian Refugee Council said many of its staff were hosting returning families in their homes. Authorities were doing their best to mobilize the few resources they had, but local systems were not equipped to cope with “such tremendous” needs.