Malala's enemy is deadlier now

Malala can never be Malala in Mingora in the Swat Valley in Pakistan. In 2012, bullets hit her neck and head when she was only 14-year-old. The attack left her in critical condition and she had to be moved to a hospital in Birmingham for treatment. Her plight moved the world and rallied more support against Taliban's attitude towards women.

Malala Yousafzai was always an advocate against Taliban's extreme tactics to curb female education in the Swat region. Since her recovery from the attack, Malala along with her well-wishers set up and raised funding for female education across Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Syria.

Soon after her return to Pakistan, Malala tweeted: "So much joy seeing my family home, visiting friends and putting my feet on this soil again." She has 1.18 followers on twitter.

Malala's return to Pakistan is after a gap of five and a half years. In 2014, Malala was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Kailash Satyarthi for activism on behalf of children's rights. She's now studying at the Oxford University in the UK. It's been a prolonged wish of hers to return home to see her family and friends. She was flanked with bodyguards as she made her return. Malala's return with bodyguards show how conflicts at home in South Asia are far from resolved. In fact, the problem is only maturing and waiting to boil over.

The federation of private schools in Pakistan protested her visit back wearing black arm bands. They accused her of building a career out of painting a negative picture of Pakistani society, army and people. Some were proud of her calling her the daughter of Pakistan. Swat has become a peaceful place over the years with army firmly controlling the area through might. But the region has transformed forever.

Fighters fleeing ISIS controlled area in the middle east are setting up shop in the region. French and Algerian fighters who were once trained in Syrian and Iraq, who once waged bitter guerrilla war against the Assad regime, some of whom even escaped and fled American and Russian bombings, are infiltrating into the region. Their fight is never territorial. It's not for free Kashmir but to liberate the "believers" and their faith. They see Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI that backs Kashmiri separatist movement as puppet of America.

ISIS flags are not uncommon in Kashmiri protests anymore. Frequent ISIS-led bombings and attacks are reported from parts of Afghanistan and Kashmir. The most interesting and worrying aspect of all this is how militants are cutting across nationalistic barriers and uniting to fight Pakistan, China, India and other state machineries in South Asia. There were 82 active cases of ISIS related investigations that happened in India alone in 2017. Fighters are slowly but surely moving to training grounds in Kashmir from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and former ISIS controlled regions. They have reached out to Burmese Rohingya muslims.

The misconception that ISIS has been defeated is due to lack of understanding on what ISIS stands for. What ISIS wants is not territorial sovereignty. They want to decentralise Islam and their militant activities so that shariat law can be enforced across the world. If ISIS is destroyed in Iraq, they can emerge in Afghanistan or the seeds of that idea can inspire other radical outfits.

After five-and-a-half years, Malala has stepped back into a more dangerous region. Her image is carefully crafted by western media and is positioned as a beacon of hope for girls in the region. But Malala's enemy Taliban has transformed into something more toxic and the idea of Malala will face tough resistance in the new socio-political atmosphere that's slowly simmering across the region.