Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Ms Yousafzai, now studying at Oxford University, was targeted on her way to school at 15 
 
 Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has returned to Pakistan for the first time since being shot by Taliban militants. 
 
 Ms Yousafzai, now aged 20 and a vocal human rights activist, was shot in the head by a gunman for campaigning for female education in 2012. 
 
 In an emotional speech at the prime minister's office, she said it had been her dream to return "without any fear". 
 
 Details of the surprise trip are being kept secret for security reasons. 
 
 Pakistani television broadcast video showing her arriving with her parents at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport under tight security. 
 
 "Always it has been my dream that I should go to Pakistan and there, in peace and without any fear, I can move on streets, I can meet people, I can talk to people," Ms Yousafzai said in a televised address from the PM's house in Islamabad. 
 
 "And I think that it's my old home again... so it is actually happening, and I am grateful to all of you." 
 
 The trip is expected to last four days. Officials from her Malala Fund group are travelling with her, local media report. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption A car (L) said to be carrying Ms Yousafzai was photographed at a hotel in Islamabad on Thursday 
 
 It has not been confirmed if she will visit her family's home region of Swat in the country's rural north-west - once a militant stronghold - during her visit. 
 
 Many on Twitter called for a warm welcome for the activist after news of her overnight homecoming broke. 
 
 Why some Pakistanis hate Malala 
 
 By Haroon Rashid, BBC Urdu editor, Islamabad 
 
 Malala's return would have been unthinkable until a couple of years ago, but security is improving after years of Islamist violence. 
 
 Her coming back sends a positive message. These days Pakistan's powerful army is keen to demonstrate that life is returning to normal. 
 
 Malala knew the longer she stayed away, the more ammunition her critics would have to target her. Although the majority here support her, many in Pakistan's patriarchal society still question her credentials as a campaigner for girls' education. 
 
 Conservative men who target her online hate her for following what they see as a Western agenda of female emancipation. 
 
 For them, women getting an education is daunting and dangerous, especially in rural areas, where millions of girls drop out of school and end up doing household work. So Malala is up against a difficult male mindset. 
 
 Why was she attacked? 
 
 At just 11, Ms Yousafzai began writing an anonymous diary for BBC Urdu about her life under Taliban rule. 
 
 She later became a vocal advocate of female education amid militant suppression in Pakistan, and was deliberately attacked on a school bus at the age of 15. Malala's story brought international attention. 
 
 The Pakistani Taliban said at the time that they had shot her because she was "pro-West" and "promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas". 
 
 Image copyright University Hospitals Birmingham Image caption After initial surgery in Pakistan for her injuries in 2012, she was transferred to the UK for her recovery 
 
 The teenager sustained life-threatening injuries in the attack, and had to have part of her skull removed to relieve swelling on her brain. 
 
 After receiving emergency treatment at a military hospital in Pakistan, she was transported to the UK for further treatment and to recover in Birmingham, where her family continue to live. 
 
 What has she done since? 
 
 Since her recovery, Ms Yousafzai has continued to speak up for children's education and rights around the world. 
 
 She set up the Malala Fund with her father Ziauddin, with the goal of "working for a world where every girl can learn and lead without fear". 
 
 In 2014 she became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She and Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi were jointly awarded it for their efforts for children's rights. 
 
 She has continued campaigning while pursuing her studies, and is now studying at Oxford University. 
 
 Is Pakistan still dangerous? 
 
 Despite security efforts in recent years, the Pakistani Taliban has remained active. 
 
 They have been blamed for a number of deadly attacks on schools and colleges that have killed hundreds. 
 
 Ms Yousafzai repeatedly expressed her wishes to return to Pakistan, describing her hometown of Swat as "paradise on earth" in an interview earlier this month. 
 
 "I have received a lot of support in my country," she told US talk-show host David Letterman in a Netflix special. 
 
 "There is this lust for change. People want to see change in their country. I am already doing work there but I want my feet to touch that land." 
 
 Pakistan is religiously conservative and late last year Ms Yousafzai was trolled online after a picture of her in Oxford wearing Western clothes - jeans and heeled boots - was shared on social media. 
 
 In 2015 a Pakistani court jailed two men for life for involvement in the attack on Ms Yousafzai. Eight others were acquitted. The man named as the chief suspect is still on the run, the authorities say. 

 Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) Nearly six years after a brutal attack left her on the verge of death, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has returned to Pakistan. 
 
 Yousafzai, 20, gave an emotional, heartfelt speech on her return to her country of birth, where she is still under threat of violence. 
 
 "I'm not very old but I've seen a lot," she said following a meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. 
 
 "I couldn't control what happened, if it was my choice I wouldn't have left my country at all. I had no choice, I had to leave for my life." 
 
 In a speech in which she often had to pause for tears, the activist hailed the fact "more than 6 million dollars" has been invested on education in Pakistan in recent years, adding she hoped "we all join hands for the betterment of Pakistan for our future, to empower our women so they can earn and stand on their own two feet." 
 
 Abbasi said he was "so happy that our child who has earned so much fame internationally has come home." 
 
 "You represent us in the world and especially of the youth and girls and the work you've done for education of girls," he said. "It is our dream and prayers that you are successful, our prayers with you. Welcome home Malala!" 
 
 The car carrying Pakistani activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafza and her father leaves for Prime Minister House Thursday, March 29. 
 
 Surprise trip 
 
 Yousafzai arrived at Benazir Bhutto International Airport flanked by heavy security in the early hours of Thursday morning, CNN affiliate Geo TV reported. 
 
 News of her surprise arrival made instant headlines in Pakistan, where many see Malala as a hero, but others consider her an agitator who should be silenced. 
 
 From a young age, Yousafzai was an advocate for girls education, writing online about the intimidation efforts of the Pakistani Taliban in Swat Valley, in the country's north. 
 
 Each time we meet is a pleasure, but today was emotional, unique and symbolic. Love this photo I got of @Malala on a happy and memorable day and one she has looked forward to #MalalaYousafzai #MalalaInPakistan #MalalaComesHome #Hope pic.twitter.com/048sqN8nUW — Samar MinAllah Khan (@SamarMinallahKh) March 29, 2018 
 
 In 2012, when she was 14, a member of the militant group shot Yousafzai and her classmates as they sat in a school bus in Mingora in Pakistan's Swat Valley. 
 
 Two suffered nonlethal injuries, but bullets struck Malala in the head and neck, leaving her in a critical condition. 
 
 Severely wounded, Yousafzai was taken by helicopter from one military hospital in Pakistan to another, where doctors placed her in a medically induced coma so an air ambulance could fly her to Great Britain for treatment. 
 
 Little more than a week after being shot, Yousafzai got back on her feet again, able to stand when leaning on a nurse's arm at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England. 
 
 The Taliban released a statement saying that they would target her again if she survived. 
 
 Global figure 
 
 Yousafzai's ordeal captured attention worldwide and created a wave of goodwill toward her and her cause. 
 
 The United Nations launched a campaign for girls' education named "I am Malala," which former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown guided as special envoy on global education. And it declared November 10 Malala Day -- a day of action to focus on "Malala and the 32 million girls like Malala not at school." 
 
 Yousafzai founded the Malala Fund, which invests in local educational initiatives for girls in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Kenya, and in Jordan, where it focuses on Syrian refugees. 
 
 Congratulations to students at KKF Model School in Shangla on your first day! I was proud to give my @NobelPrize money to help build this school for girls in my home community. Thank you @MalalaFund, @Aman_Foundation, @TheBigHeartUAE & @susanmccaw. pic.twitter.com/HF4vsSdNpp — Malala (@Malala) March 15, 2018 
 
 In 2014, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Kailash Satyarthi for activism on behalf of children's rights. 
 
 She began studying at Oxford University in the UK last year, but in her most recent public interview, she told talk show host David Letterman about how she missed "the rivers and mountains" of her home in Swat Valley and all she wanted was for her "feet to touch the ground of home." 
 
 JUST WATCHED Malala Yousafzai is going to Oxford University Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Malala Yousafzai is going to Oxford University 01:07 
 
 'She defeated fear' 
 
 In her hometown of Mingora, locals were excited to hear of Yousafzai's return to Pakistan, saying they hoped she would make the 250-kilometer (155-mile) trip from Islamabad to visit them in the Swat Valley. 
 
 "She should have come back much earlier, we welcome her, she is the pride of the world, why wouldn't she be ours as well?" said Niaz Ahmed, a friend of Malala's father. 
 
 "Her courage is an example for education in a place called Swat. She defeated fear in Swat." 
 
 Faryal Niaz, a 16-year-old student at the Khushal Model School, where Yousafzai studied before she was shot, said Malala was her idol. 
 
 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai poses on stage in Birmingham, England, after she was announced as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, October 10, 2014. Two years earlier, she was shot in the head by the Taliban for her efforts to promote education for girls in Pakistan. Since then, after recovering from surgery, she has taken her campaign to the world stage. Hide Caption 1 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala and her family visit the United Nations headquarters in New York before meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in August. Hide Caption 2 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala speaks during the Commonwealth Day observance service at Westminster Abbey in London. Malala has lived in Britain since the Taliban attack. Hide Caption 3 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala speaks at a youth empowerment event at London's Wembley Arena in March. Hide Caption 4 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala gives a copy of her book to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II during a reception at Buckingham Palace in October 2013. Hide Caption 5 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala addresses students and faculty of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after receiving the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award in September 2013. Hide Caption 6 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Queen Rania of Jordan presents Malala with the Leadership in Civil Society Award at the Clinton Global Citizen Awards ceremony in New York in September 2013. Hide Caption 7 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Musician Bono, right, and Salil Shetty, the secretary general of Amnesty International, honor Malala with the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award at the Manison House in Dublin, Ireland, in September 2013. The award is Amnesty International's highest honor, recognizing individuals who have promoted and enhanced the cause of human rights. Hide Caption 8 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala receives a trophy from Yemeni civil rights activist Tawakkol Karman after being honored with the International Children's Peace Prize in The Hague, Netherlands, in September 2013. Karman was one of the Nobel Peace Prize winners in 2011. Hide Caption 9 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala receives the 25th International Prize of Catalonia in July 2013 in Barcelona, Spain. The award recognizes those who have contributed to the development of cultural, scientific and human values around the world. Hide Caption 10 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala is applauded before she speaks at the United Nations Youth Assembly in New York on July 12, 2013, her 16th birthday. "They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed," she said. "And then, out of that silence, came thousands of voices." Hide Caption 11 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala was one of seven people featured on the cover of Time magazine's 100 most influential people edition in April 2013. Hide Caption 12 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala returns to school at Edgbaston High School for Girls in Birmingham, England, on March 19, 2013. She said she had "achieved her dream." Hide Caption 13 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Malala recovers after receiving treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on October 19, 2012. Doctors covered the large hole in her skull with a titanium plate. The teen suffered no major brain or nerve damage, and she even kept the piece of her skull that was removed as a souvenir of her fight. Hide Caption 14 of 15 Photos: Malala Yousafzai Pakistani hospital workers carry Malala on a stretcher on October 9, 2012, after she was shot in the head and neck by the Taliban in Mingora, Pakistan. Hide Caption 15 of 15 
 
 "When girls like us go to school in Swat the only reason is Malala Yousafza," she told CNN. 
 
 Teacher Fazal Khaliq said people hadn't expected Malala to return for many more years, and would welcome her visit. 
 
 "Malala should come back again and again. She's only completed one school and we hope that she works on more schools in Swat. I feel like today is Eid," he said, referring to the religious holiday.
– Malala Yousafzai has returned to the country where she was shot and almost killed six years ago for campaigning for girls' education—and where Taliban militants have vowed to finish the job if she ever comes back. The 20-year-old activist, who was 15 when she was shot along with two classmates on a school bus in 2012, has arrived in Islamabad under tight security for what is expected to be a four-day visit, the BBC reports. Malala, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, has lived in Britain with her family since she was taken there for medical treatment after the attack, in which she was shot in the head and neck. Malala is now an Oxford University student and this is her first visit to her homeland since the attack. It's not clear whether Malala will visit her family's hometown of Mingora in the Swat valley, 150 miles north of Islamabad, though residents say she would be very welcome. "She should have come back much earlier, we welcome her, she is the pride of the world, why wouldn't she be ours as well?" family friend Niaz Ahmed tells CNN. "Her courage is an example for education in a place called Swat. She defeated fear in Swat." Malala told David Letterman earlier this month that she longed to return. "People want to see change in their country," she said. "I am already doing work there but I want my feet to touch that land."