The Latest: Peace Prize winner Malala meets with Pakistan PM

ISLAMABAD

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Latest on Malala Yousafzai’s visit to Pakistan (all times local):

11:40 a.m.

The government says Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai is meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, hours after she returned to Pakistan for the first time since she was shot in 2012 by Taliban militants.

According to the statement, Malala was received by Abbasi on her arrival at his office in the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb and senior government officials were also present at the meeting.

Malala was taken to Abbasi’s office under tight security.

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11:15 p.m.

Pakistanis are welcoming Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai on her return to her homeland for the first time since she was shot in 2012 by Taliban militants.

Cricketer-turned opposition leader Imran Khan’s party said Thursday that Malala’s return was a sign of the defeat of extremism in the country.

Mohammad Hassan, one of Malala’s cousins in the northwestern town of Mingora, says it is one of the happiest days of his life. He says he is not sure whether Malala will visit her home town.

Marvi Memon, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, also welcomed Malala, saying it was a pleasant surprise for her to see Malala back home.

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8:20 a.m.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has returned to Pakistan for the first time she was shot in 2012 by militants angered at her championing of education for girls.

Tight security greeted the now-20-year-old university student upon her arrival Thursday.

Local television showed her with her parents in the lounge at Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport, and she left in a convoy of nearly 15 vehicles, many of them occupied by heavily armed police.

She is to meet with Pakistan’s prime minister later in the day.