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English Script Request

HsSarp
Complete / 1678 Words
by happyKia -

"It wasn't happening to me. I was in a state of paralysis."

"These guys are bandits. They are going to rob us."

"He was openly a supporter of Al-Qaeda."

"The feelings of fear and uncertainty were too powerful. You cannot show any fear."

(stopped at :52seconds)

by Keili -

I started off working at the Sunday Mercury as a reporter, and eventually became investigations editor. Even pre-9/11, I was beginning to do stories with an Islamic slant. As a British-born Asian myself, I have a certain affinity with these young guys, and when I was interviewing them, I could speak to them in their own language.

My ancestors came down from Afghanistan, so I definitely felt this personal journey as much as a little journalistic assignment.

I want to go to Afghanistan, I wanna go my road, and then I wanna come back.

I wanted to go to Kabul and write a story of how real Afghans were feeling and thinking, and that was my mission, so to speak, and everything else came below that. I was going into a war zone. I was really excited, it was what I'd always wanted, you know, report on a real life war. So it was pure excitement and pure adrenalin really.

David Brooks, my editor, gave me all the backing that I ever needed - had enough trust in me to think "Well, if there's a situation he might find himself in, if there's anybody who can get themselves out of it it will be Amardeep.

(Stopped at 02:22)

by arexroat -

After spending a couple of days in Islamabad, I had to start my trip to Kabul, to Afghanistan. I go up to Peshawar.

when I got to Peshawar the first guy I contacted was a guy called Tarik Kahn, Who was a representative or worked for the human rights commission in Pakistan, in their Peshawar office.

Basically I was asking him "what can you do for me, how can you get me from Peshawar to Kabul and back unscathed?" At this point I still felt that it would be me and me alone going.

I wasn't expecting Tarik to say, well: "I will sen someone with you", but that's exactly what he said.

And he said "well, they're really nice, decent people" or, ya know "they're my cousins"

I only had a single entry visa into Pakistan, I didn't have a multiple entry visa, so I couldn't leave Pakistan and come back in again without going through the whole rigmarole of applying for another visa. But, the one thing that Tarik did say to me was that it was something that can be sorted out, at the passport office, at the border. And that advice he gave I would turn it over and over again in my mind that shouldn't I have done something about it?

(stopped at 04:00)

by Ando -

Tarik packed me into the car, and these two bodyguards, and went as far as the checkpoints.

The checkpoint: it basically is, you know, where Peshawar stops and the tribal areas begin. And there's a-- a sign that clearly says "No foreigners beyond this point".

"Okay, Muldib (transcriber's note: not sure about this name)."
"Okay, thanks."
"Goodbye."
"Bye."

And it was at that point, Tarik left.

It was slowly coming home to me, exactly where I am, and how dangerous a place this is. And this was a place where the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were fleeing and re-grouping.

And I was taken to a, uh... a block of buildings. Three-story buildings. Quite derelict, really. And I was told I was gonna meet Noshad.

(Stopped at 5:07)

by falula -

"I sat there for a while and was told we'd thought Noshad's on his way.

And at first, he wasn't introduced to me. He just turned up along with another couple of people. But there was something about him, he stuck out.
He got straight down to business, you know, the first thing he asked me was:"

"What are you doing here?"

"There was no niceties, no small talk, and I liked that.
After initially sizing each other up, Noshad was obviously confident that.. I'm okay."

"You're a brave man."

"I've not promised him any money and he's not getting anything at all out of it.
It was purely, 'my word is my bond', and Noshad's word was his bond.

And, uh, that evening, their way of relaxing was to sit down with a bottle of his homemade hooch, which they called "[unsure] water" which was being distilled from sugarcane."

(Stopped at 6:04)

by pallen -

"I got a watch which, um, was a present given to me. It had a camera on it. And it clearly said on the front 'wrist camera.'"

"It took it in black and white, and very grainy. But it certainly, the, uh, tribesmen were very fascinated by it and were passing it around and were taking pictures of each other and were you know just taken in by this amazing gadget. Taking that watch to Pakistan and Afghanistan with me was probably the worst mistake I made."

"[Unsure] I was feeling a bit, uh, heavy headed after the long night from before."

(Stopped at 7:08)

by voiii -

And as soon as I got up it struck me like, "This is the day. I was gonna get to Afghanistan. It's gonna happen today."

And I sha'll return with a friend of his, this guy called Gatab Shaw, and we saw it formulating our plans about what're gonna do, uh, how we gonna get there, what're gonna do when we get there
And it was at this stage where NiShat kind of sat me down and said look. "You're not one of us"
This is a risky venture.

"You're not a paton"
You're not a paton, as they are the tribal people. "So you must be very, very discrete about your identity."

What am I gonna do? Obviously you're gonna wear a Salwar Kameez, a traditional clothing.
I was also, told to buy one of those, sort of Muslim Skull Caps.
Again, which would cover my Indian-ness.

"You're looking like a true Muslim."
"Alright"
"What is this?"
"It a Macará"

I wear a seek, uh, bracelet, for a sign of seekage.
Amiv I've told you, I warned you about your identity.
But the cara doesn't actually come off.
"I've been wearing it since I was a kid"
"Alright, you'll hide it."

「Stopped at 8:14」

by scott_usa_chicago -

"I was told to sort of cover that"

"We we're about to go on the bus which was going to take us to the border, and that was probably the first time when it really struck home that hang on you could die doing this and is any story worth that"

"I just wanted to know so I asked him straight"

"So Shad tell me honestly are we taking a massive risk here, are we gonna come out of this alive"

"look, right now I don't make you any promises, over there is like a lawless travel area"

"But one thing I can promise you is that you know anything that happens will happen to us together"

"We have fun, we have fun together"

"If we get caught, you know it will be together"

"If we get shot we'll get shot together"

by scott_usa_chicago -

stopped at 9:14

by JBlohowiak -

As you approached the border, you could see quite a bustling of atmosphere there, a lot of going on. There was all kinds of different characters there and for the life of me…I thought well you know one of these guys could be Bin Ladin, because at the time all of Al-Qaida fighters and a lot of the Taliban were fleeing into the tribal areas. And it seemed like a very kind of um, poorer sport, you couldn’t see who was exiting and who was entering. At this point I was thinking well should I go to the passport office now and say well look I haven’t got a multiple entry but you know I’m here now so can we sort this out now. But I thought well we’ve got this far why invite any problems now and just go with the flow get to Afghanistan and like Terik said, deal with it when you get back. Noshad’s sort of striking a deal with a taxi driver to take us there. So we jumped in a taxi and uh we had been driving for about five minutes or so. It was like yeah, this surge of excitement kind of went through all of us, you know, we’ve done it we’re here, we’re in Afghanistan to hell with the consequences we’re free, let’s see where it takes us. But we didn’t actually see many people or traffic along the way I don’t think it was a particularly advisable route to be taking at that time. But along the way we stopped at, um, a sort of [inaudible] eight café’s rest stops. It was like going into a planetary bar with star wars where you’ve got all these aliens from different planets sort of socializing in this bar. I’ve been warned, you know, if we go to one of these rest stops don’t say anything to anybody in fact don’t even make any eye contact with anybody because this is a free for all anybody could be in there, there’s bandits who are probably there, there’s, you know, anybody who might want to kidnap you out there. I was beginning to feel slightly nervous and I thought well you know even Noshad is slightly out of his depth here. Maybe…and they were just shooters. No one knows exactly where we are. How long will it be before anybody finds us? And you know, I followed the rules I tried not to make any eye contact with anybody. And you know it was just fascinating looking at I’m thinking well I wonder where you’ve been I wonder what your history is where you’re going, you know, I was thinking [inaudible] you’d never guess that I’m actually from all the Hampton in England, you know. And as we got closer and closer to Kabul we…

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