Herat

I guess that now the only people that will or dare go here are American military people. I was here in the 1970’s driving overland from UK to India in a Transit van. I remember having a long wait at the customs office. We were asked by the customs officer to take his “brother” from the office in to Herat, but we were quite apprehensive having been warned of scams where you are taken to places best not visited, so we made excuses saying that we didn’t have enough room. With that the customs officer took our passports and driving documents, put them in a draw in his office and left without any further explanation. We were then ordered by another guardsman to empty the van and then put everything back in, without any attempt to search or check it, just, it seemed to delay us. Then we sat around waiting for more than an hour. We figured that this was either to crack us or for us to offer some sort of bribe, but we weren’t having either. The officer was still away all of this time so we decided that we were going to have to make a move. Paul went into the room where the documents were and just open the draw and took them. Shaking and sweating we took them to the truck drivers’ office and without any bother had the entry visas validated and drove away. We didn’t stop in Herat just kept on driving. When we reached a quiet village we parked up off the main road. Later we heard that a scam was to get you to drive into an out of the way part of town where someone would walk out in front of your vehicle without warning and get knocked down. As there was an official (or at least with connection to an official) in the vehicle it would be impossible to just drive away. There would then be a great scene with everyone in the area turning out. The passenger would then say that he wanted to return the favour you had shown him by extricating you from the situation by means of a substantial compensation to the” victim” or his family (depending on how incapacitated he was). I didn’t have any personal first hand experience of this but did hear the warning enough times to have some belief in it. We did meet a group of UK Pakistanis who were returning overland. Their vehicle had front damage, they said that someone had walk out in front of them and they hit him. They were arrested and locked in police cells before “offering” to pay compensation so that they could leave. As with many countries those officials that have direct dealing with people can be very “by the book” or “open to offers”. Other than that and a few dodgy deals, I found Afghanistan to be a country that I am truly glad to have had the opportunity to visit.

Any of my fellow Americans and Britons who are reading this, I would welcome any advice or information you have on these places. Any Afghans who read this, I wish you peace, and the peace of Allah be with you now and always.

Poet Nadia Angiman was beaten to death by her husband here. He is under arrest, as is his mother.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/11/08/top12.htm