There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free.

Listen with Wundry Plus in the Wundry app.

As a member of Noiser Plus at Noiser.com or in Apple Podcasts,

or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at into History.com. It's October 9, 2012 in Mungora, a city in the Swat Valley of Pakistan.

Usman Baye-John turns his flatbed truck onto a side road.

He weaves to avoid a pothole in the crumbling asphalt not wanting to jolt his passengers in the back.

Usmond's small truck doubles as a school bus.

And every morning and evening, he transports the students of a local girl school

to their lessons and then back home.

It's only a short journey, but Uzman is always surprised by how much gossip

the girls exchanged during the trip. Uzman checks this rearview mirror. The girls are laughing

with each other oblivious to the bumpy ride.

But as Uzman's eyes returned to the road, a man steps out in front of the truck with his arms

raised.

Usbon hits the brakes and the truck jerks to a stop. He turns around to check that the girls are okay.

Just as another man steps onto the tailgate at the rear of the truck,

Usman's stomach lurches as the man takes out a pistol and points it at the girls. He demands to know which of them is Malala.

Malala Yvesi is one of the girls who rides on Uzman's truck every day, but she's not just a student.

She also leads a vocal campaign to encourage other girls to attend school, and that has

angered the Islamic militants who are active in this part of Pakistan.

Usman and the other girls don't answer the gunman's question,

but one or two involuntarily flicked their eyes and Malala's direction.

...