Nobel laureate Malala returns to Pakistan for girls' education summit

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said on Saturday she was "overwhelmed" to be back in her native Pakistan, as she arrived for a global summit on girls' education in Muslim communities.

The education activist was shot by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or the Pakistani Taliban, in 2012 when she was a schoolgirl and has returned to the country only a handful of times since.

"I'm truly honoured, overwhelmed and happy to be back in Pakistan," she said as she arrived at the conference in the capital Islamabad.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was set to open the two-day summit on Saturday morning. It will bring together representatives from Muslim-majority countries. Yousafzai is due to address the summit on Sunday.

Yousafzai became a household name after she was attacked by the Pakistani Taliban on a school bus in the remote Swat valley in 2012.

The Pakistani Taliban is not the same as the Afghan Taliban. These are two different entities with contrasting ambitions and their leadership has almost always varied, though many of their affiliates have shared close family ties.

She was evacuated to the United Kingdom and became a global advocate for girls' education and, at the age of 17, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner.