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.”
