Charlotte Buchen's Blogs
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Attack at Karachi Sufi shrine
Abdullah Shah Ghazi's mazar was struck by twin suicide attacks tonight and ten people have been killed. Legend has it that Karachi's famous Sufi shrine (depicted above in a photo of unknown date) has protected the city from typhoons. It's no coincidence that the attacks occurred on a Thursday, an evening when the shrine would be packed with worshipers listening to music in search a connection with the divine. The grim news came in as we were driving back from a joyful celebration of music at another shrine, near the northern city of Lahore. I was with beloved Punjabi folk singer Arif Lohar. We were all basking the afterglow of the spontaneous performance he'd given at the shrine of Baba Bulleh Shah to an ecstatic audience of worshipers. Lohar was so happy to share his love of Sufi music and culture with me and with...
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Rehmat Ulla from South Waziristan
Charlotte BuchenI was filming with a Jamaat-e-Islami activist when his neighbor Rehmat Ulla stopped by, curious to meet the American. He told me about why he and his family left South Waziristan, where Pakistan Army planes and American drones alike showered bombs on his area. He gave a bittersweet smile. \"Everyone has run away,\" Ulla told me. \"Everyone is attacking there - the Army, the Taliban, the Americans. Many women and children are being killed.\" He said that the larger impact in his area is from Pakistan army planes, whose bombs are more destructive, and less precise than the drones. He said that no one in his family supports the Taliban, but that far more innocent people are killed by the Pakistani Army than by the Taliban or the American attacks. I said that one never reads about these attacks in the media, and Ulla...
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