After Swat school van firing incident, Malala Yousafzai reaches Pakistan

A day after the school van firing incident in Swat, Nobel laureate and girls’ education campaigner Malala Yousafzai reached Pakistan to assist flood victims.

Malala Yousafzai along with her parents landed at the Karachi airport amid strict security.

The Pakistani education rights icon last visited Pakistan nearly four years ago in 2018. It was the first time she returned home to her native Swat Valley after being shot by the Taliban there.

In October 2012, Malala — then 15 years old — was shot in the head at point-blank range by Taliban gunmen as she was returning from her school in the Swat Valley.

She suffered bullet injuries and was admitted to the military hospital Peshawar but was later flown to London for further treatment. The shooting drew widespread international condemnation.

She has become an internationally recognised symbol of resistance to the Taliban’s efforts of denying women education and other rights.

In 2014, Yousafzai became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17 in recognition of her efforts for children’s rights.

The Nobel laureate has now returned to the country for the second time to provide help to the affected people in the flood-hit areas of Sindh.

Earlier on Monday, unidentified armed men on a motorcycle opened fire on a school van in Swat’s Char Bagh area on Monday, killing the driver and injuring a child, according to police.

Swat District Police Officer (DPO) Zahid Marwat, while confirming the attack, said that the incident occurred earlier today outside the Knowledge City School in the Guli Bagh locality. He said there were 15 students inside the vehicle at the time of the attack.

Hundreds of students came out to protest in #Swat over growing lawlessness and terrorist attacks demanding @KPGovernment and security forces to provide them security pic.twitter.com/1bmmshG1SG

— Mubashir Zaidi (@Xadeejournalist) October 10, 2022

The officer told Dawn News that the body and injured student have been moved to the Khwazakhela Hospital, while the child — a third grader seated in the passenger seat of the van — was now out of danger.

The attack comes a day after the 10th anniversary of the shooting of Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) when she was a schoolgirl.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack.