ONE year after a Taliban bullet tried to silence Malala Yousafzai's demand for girls' education, she has published a book and is a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize.
But the militants threaten to kill her should she dare return home to Pakistan, and the principal at her old school says that as Malala's fame has grown, so has fear in her classrooms.
Although Malala remains in Britain and her assailant is still at large, police say the case is closed and many Pakistanis publicly wonder whether the shooting was staged to create a hero for the West to embrace.
Shortly after the attack, Pakistani schoolchildren filled the streets carrying placards with the words "I am Malala."
A year later, a popular refrain is, "Why Malala?"
The school made no plans to recognise the anniversary, although children in other parts of the country did and even a giant poster of Malala that once emblazoned the wall of the assembly hall has been removed.
"We have had threats, there are so many problems," school principal Selma Naz said.
"It is much more dangerous for us after Malala's shooting and all the attention that she is getting.
"We all have fear in our hearts."
An armed commando now stands guard outside the school's massive black steel front door.
Malala left the school through that same door on October 9, 2012, laughing with her friends as they climbed into the back of a small pick-up truck used to transport the children.
A masked man with a gun stopped the truck beside a dusty, open field and a second masked man jumped into the back with a pistol and shouted "Who is Malala?" before raising his pistol at her and firing two shots.
One bullet hit Malala on the top of the head while two other students were also hit, but their wounds were not serious.
Malala woke up a week later at a hospital in Birmingham, England, where she was taken for specialist treatment.
The many awards that have since been bestowed on her, including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is to be announced on Friday, have stirred anti-Western sentiments in Pakistan, where a brutal insurgency has killed thousands of civilians and more than 4000 soldiers.
Frustrated by the relentless demands by the West "to do more," many Pakistanis see Malala's international acclaim as a Western drama played out to heap more criticism on their country.
Last December, students at a school in the Swat Valley protested a government decision to rename it the Malala Yousafzai Girls College. Eventually Malala's name was removed and the school returned to its original name.
Malala's battle for girls' education began when she was barely 11 years old.
Family friend and educator Ahmed Shah, whose battle for girls' education has also brought death threats from the Taliban, said both Malala and her father are threatened.
He said the Pakistan government was the first to recognise her bravery with a National Peace Award in 2011, a year before the shooting, but Malala, who is now 16 and has just published a book about the assassination attempt, is paying a price for her notoriety.
Shah said Malala's father told him she is weeping and complaining there is not time for her to study as she prepares to visit America, Austria and Spain.
Naz, who started as school principal three months ago, said it doesn't help that Malala's assailant is still at large.
The attacker will likely never be caught, said Shah, noting that police rarely even investigate an incident if the Taliban take credit for it, while Swat lawyer Aftab Alam said fear among judges generally leads to acquittals anyway.
"No one can dare to appear before the court, even the police cannot dare to investigate" an attack by the Taliban because of fear of retaliation, said Alam.
Military officials say Malala's assailant, identified as Attaullah, has fled to Afghanistan, while the police say the case is closed.
The militants remain unrepentant for the attack on Malala.
Last weekend the Taliban again vowed to try to kill Malala if she returned from Britain to Pakistan, which she has repeatedly said is her dream.
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