Following the trail of the London Bombers on the 7th July we are in Pakistan waiting to see what turns up. By we, I mean Stuart the correspondant…
and Tim the producer both out of London.
Its been a bit of a mad trip where nothing has proved to be easy. Firstly trying to get visa’s in a hurry is a time where it would be very easy for the government to say no.
Next there are no direct flights between Delhi and Islamabad - you have to go via a third city in Pakistan - but not on a Tuesday. So instead I had to go via Dubai and back again taking a total of 23 odd hours for what should be a 3 hour journey time. I am sure they will work it out though.
Then with more equipment problems - my camera not recording when it said it was - grrr and live kit not working properly it was not the best start. Finally with some lives under our belt we headed out on Thursday morning at 6am for Lahore - no flights so a 5 hour drive scrunched up in the back of a Toyota Hi-ace.
My camera gives up again putting us back 2 hours - so it has been sidelined then In 45 degree heat and running against the clock we have to shoot more for toady and tomorrow, edit and get some lives in. It doesn’t help that I put my watch back to India time and loose half an hour.
Because of the significance of the Madrassa’s we do visit one of the ones where one of the bombers allededly attended.
This is one of the classrooms where the students learn the Qur’an by heart over a period of years.
Whilst the Mullah did treat us curteously it was quiet apparant from the students we weren’t welcome and even picked up a couple of secret policemen who then followed us for the rest of the day - to ensure our safety!
Having done all this on Thursday we hang around on Friday for some protests which didn’t happen - file again - do another couple of lives for Sky and Ch5 and up early on the Saturday morning for the return drive to Islamabad - still no flights. I don’t like mini buses you just can’t sleep properly.
The day did turn out better though - lazy lunch - bit of shopping - a few DVD’s but no Shreddies!
