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Mywed

I visited Pakistan in 2008. Together with a colleague from the Academy of Sciences we were invited to an annual Summer School in Nathiagali. Of course I was excited that I will travel to Pakistan, to a country to which I alone would probably never travel. Even I travel alone for several years there are still countries one would not go alone. In the present unfortunately Pakistan is one of these countries, together with Somalia and Nigeria. The first surprise was the high moisture at the airport of Islamabad. A delegation was waiting for us at the airport which didn´t move for one meter aside from us. Our walking freedom was very limited to quarters full of embassies and shops which were a priory searched by police men. The Summer School took place in the region of Kashmir, approx. 100 kilometres from Islamabad. We boarded a police car and the full distance of 100 kilometres we were escorted by two additional police cars, one ahead of us and one behind us to Nathiagali – of course the whole time the police sirens were on. What was very unpleasant on one hand and created attention on the other. I had a lot of possibilities to speak to local people. At least one gets an inside look in to the peoples mind and tries to understand their thinking. A few years after our return, maybe 26 kilometres from the place we lived the U.S. Seals captures Usama bin Laden. I´m convinced that already at the time we were there he lived there. During the walks in the nearest small city you could easily recognize the Pashtun ethnics, due to the Kalashnikovs standing out of their dress.