ISLAMABAD — 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.

With tears in her eyes, Yousafzi recalled Thursday having to leave Pakistan for treatment when she was shot.

At a ceremony at Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s office, the university student said she had always thought about returning to Pakistan.

She says: “It is now actually happening and I am here” and that she will continue to campaign for the education of girls.

Abbasi praised Yousafzai, saying he is happy to welcome her home, where he says terrorism has been eliminated.