Pakistan elections: Imran Khan out but not down

Mr Khan made a shaky start to his political career in the mid-1990s

It has been like a drawn test match for Pakistani cricket hero-turned-politician Imran Khan.

He played a long, dogged innings, and though he could not lead his team to victory, he has avoided a defeat.
His party has emerged as the largest in the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, a region that has borne the brunt of attacks by Taliban militants.
He has also won one, and may win another, of the 12 parliamentary seats from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), a strip of land adjacent to KP where Taliban militants fighting the Nato forces in Afghanistan have sanctuaries.
Remarkable achievement It wasn't until final results were released that it emerged that Mr Khan had only narrowly missed out on securing the legally important position of leader of the opposition in the national parliament.
For many, however, his has been a remarkable achievement, and one which will see his party make further inroads into the Punjab heartland from where it bagged a substantial amount of votes, though fewer seats.

The BBC's Orla Guerin speaks to Imran Khan during the campaign trail

But that will depend on how quickly he can recover from the back injury he sustained when he fell off a fork-lift during an election rally last week.
He suffered three minor fractures in the spine but his nervous system was unharmed. His doctor has told the BBC that Mr Khan will have another two weeks of bed rest before walking again with the help of a brace. He is set to make a full recovery over the coming weeks, his doctors say.
In an end-of-the campaign speech from his hospital bed last week - which was broadcast to a rally in the capital Islamabad via a video link - he seemed to open his heart to his audience when he talked about the long struggle which was about to come to fruition, and the sacrifices he had had to make, including the pain of losing his wife.
"My wife, poor woman, she had to leave me because they wouldn't let her live in peace," he said in an emotional moment.
An international cricketing celebrity, Mr Khan led Pakistan to its cricket World Cup triumph in 1992.
But he made a shaky start of his political innings back in the mid-1990s.
He was harassed by the conservative and Islamist circles who accused him of being a "Zionist gent".
This was because he had married an English heiress, Jemima Goldsmith, whose father, Sir James Goldsmith, came from a Jewish background.
The marriage lasted nine years and produced two children, both boys.
Playboy-turned-puritan To the electorate, he came across as a political lightweight who had no ideological moorings and only ambiguous views on crucial issues.
His message of Islamic values and the formation of an Islamic welfare state that would not be a slave of the West were interpreted by many as the ramblings of a "playboy-turned-puritan

During the last couple of years he seems to have burst into aggressive batting, and has suddenly caught the fancy of the crowds.”

He suffered an early scandal when a widely respected welfare activist, Abdus Sattar Edhi, took temporary refuge in London, saying he was being threatened by a group that included Mr Khan and Hamid Gul, a former chief of Pakistani intelligence (ISI).

In a 2010 interview, Mr Edhi explained: "They wanted to topple [Prime Minister] Benazir Bhutto's government, and wanted to fire their guns from my shoulder. When I refused, they threatened to kidnap me. I'm not the political type, so I caught a flight to London."
The charge was denied by Mr Khan's party which said that Mr Khan only wanted Mr Edhi to join him in a pressure group "to push the government into spending more on health, education and welfare".
More recently, there were allegations that another former ISI chief, General Shuja Pasha, helped boost his political support, a charge the party denies.
A 'new Pakistan' Despite his celebrity appeal and hero's status, he could only win one seat in the 2002 elections. He boycotted the elections in 2008.
But during the last couple of years he seems to have burst into aggressive batting, and has suddenly caught the fancy of the crowds.
He has done this by promising a "new" Pakistan, and getting rid of the old guard who he says have been "fixing the matches so that they can take turns at power".
As election results show, he holds greater appeal in the north-west - inhabited by ethnic Pashtuns - presumably because he himself comes from the Pashtun Niazi tribe, settled in the Mianwali region of Punjab province.
And his opposition of the US-led war against militancy has also touched a chord with the people of this region.
His argument that militancy in Pakistan is the direct result of the American invasion of Afghanistan, and that it would end once the Western troops leave that country, has gone down well with the youth in the north-west.
His rhetoric to shoot down the American drones also appealed to the Pashtun people in the tribal areas, who have been at the sharp end of the drones for several years.
Whether he will interfere with Nato's 2014 exit through Pakistan if he is able to form a government in KP is a question that only time will answer.
One thing is clear. He is going to have a solid block of votes on the opposition benches in the national parliament and he will use them to maximum effect to pave the way for a victory in the next elections.
He is just 61 years old and generally in good health. If nothing serious has happened to his back, he will soon be back on his feet. The match is over, but the series is on.

China sex workers 'abused by police'

Many barber shops, massage parlours and karaoke bars in China also offer sexual services

Sex workers in China are subject to abuse by police, including physical assault, arbitrary detentions and extortion, a new report says.

The report by advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) also describes cases of sex workers being coerced into HIV testing and sent to re-education camps.
Prostitution is illegal in China, and the government has sought to crack down on the trade.
However, the report says such efforts have made sex workers more vulnerable.
The report, which is based on around 140 interviews with sex workers, clients, police and specialists, said many sex workers were beaten by police in an attempt to coerce confessions.
"They attached us to trees, threw freezing cold water on us, and then proceeded to beat us," one sex worker told HRW.
Another said that police "deceived" her into signing a confession.
"The police told me it was fine, all I needed to do was sign my name and they would release me after four or five days," she said.
"Instead, I was locked up in [a] Custody and Education centre for six months".
'Forfeited rights'

I've been raped several times. But... I have never been willing to report to the police”

Sex worker, Beijing

Police often failed to investigate crimes against sex workers, the report said. Many sex workers were also afraid to report crimes to the police.

"I've been raped several times. But because I am a sex worker and selling sex is a violating of the law, I could be arrested. So I have never been willing to report to the police," one said.
There were also reports of police extorting money from sex workers and collaborating with clients during crackdowns.
"They arrange to have a client come into our venue and ask for sexual services. Once the services have started, the client calls the police, who arrest us both. They then fine the sex worker and split the money with the client," a sex worker said.
The report said that some women had been detained only for carrying condoms, which the police used as evidence of prostitution.
"This practice deters sex workers from carrying condoms, putting them at increased risk of HIV," the report said.
The report also said that sex workers were coerced into taking HIV tests, with the results being disclosed to third parties. Others said they were not given the results of their own tests.
"In China, the police often act as if by engaging in sex work, women have forfeited their rights," Sophie Richardson, HRW's China director, said.
The report calls on the Chinese government to "enact legislation to remove criminal and administrative sanctions against voluntary, consensual sex work".
It also says the government should end "the periodic 'anti-prostitution' mobilisation campaigns that have generated severe abuses against women engaging in sex work".
HRW cites UN estimates that put the number of female sex workers in China at between 4 and 6 million

Letter from Africa: Ghanaians learn legalese

In our series of letters from African journalists, Elizabeth Ohene considers why the lengthy legal challenge in Ghana to the results of December's election is proving a popular courtroom drama.

We are all lawyers now in Ghana.
We use courtroom language in communicating with each other.
We suggest to each other, we put it to each other and we ask each other for further and better particulars.

We are in a lot of unchartered waters and it is doubtful we have ever watched so much television”

Children object with the greatest respect to being asked to turn off the television and mothers overrule or sustain the objections as the mood takes them.

After three weeks of live broadcast of hearings at the Supreme Court of an election petition, it is fair to say that Ghana is in the grip of a one-item conversation subject.
Almost five months after we had parliamentary and presidential elections and almost four months after a president was inaugurated, the petition challenging the validity of the election of the president is now being heard at the Supreme Court.
We are in a lot of unchartered waters and it is doubtful we have ever watched so much television.
Television cameras are not normally allowed in Ghanaian courts and to most of us the entire judicial process is shrouded in mystery.
We tend to treat judges, lawyers and courtrooms with a lot of deference, verging on fear.
Traffic jams clear The live transmission of the Supreme Court proceedings has therefore gripped the public imagination and exploded a few myths.
There have been loud complaints that the live transmissions are wreaking havoc on the economy.

Ghanaians are learning to use legal language thanks to the Supreme Court petition

I am not sure that it will be allowed as evidence but I have heard it on the radio and read it in the newspapers that there is no work being done in the country as everybody is watching the court proceedings on television or computers or listening on the radio and productivity has ground to zero.
Even Accra's notorious vehicular traffic congestion is reported to have gone down these past three weeks as we all stay glued to our television sets.

When one lawyer stands up in court and refers to "my learned friends"... we are able to decipher that he can barely contain his contempt for them”

I can testify that when I walked into a doctor's waiting room in Accra recently, I saw a roomful of people with everybody's eyes hypnotically trained on the television set up in a corner of the room and the slightest cough was met with hostile disapproval.

This is doubtless the greatest show in town and Ghana has never really had anything quite like it.
The courtroom drama is electrifying enough but the stakes are very high and deadly serious.
Having watched the hearings in Kenya that were all wrapped up in a fortnight and before the inauguration of Uhuru Kenyatta as president, some here wonder about the magisterial pace of our hearings.
But our constitution says if the petitioners are successful, the Supreme Court can declare the election of the president invalid - no matter how many months after his election and inauguration; and so we are ploughing on till the court gives its verdict.
In the process of all the bowing and scraping, and the use of arcane language, many myths are being dispelled.

When one lawyer stands up in court and refers to "my learned friends", that is, the lawyers on the other side in the case, we are able to decipher that he can barely contain his contempt for them.

He does not believe they are learned, he seems to think they are dunces and they are certainly not his friends.
The rules that have been imposed on the state broadcaster mean that the cameras cannot zoom in on the judges, so we do not see their faces, we can see their outlines and hear their disembodied voices and we know they are in charge because they have the last word and everybody bows to them.
My favourite moment so far has been the star witness turning to the lawyer who was cross-examining him and saying: "Don't shout, counsel."
I never knew you could get away with that in a court.
Believe me, Ghana will never be the same again after this

Rohingya boat sinks off west Burma

Burmese officials have begun evacuating people in camps ahead of Cyclone Mahasen

A boat carrying Rohingya Muslims has capsized off western Burma, aid agencies say.

The boat, said to be carrying up to 200 passengers, was evacuating people ahead of Cyclone Mahasen, which is expected to hit the area later in the week.
The boat sank off Pauktaw township in Rakhine state late on Monday, leaving an unknown number of people missing.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims are living in temporary camps in Rakhine after violence last year.
The UN had called for an urgent evacuation ahead of the storm, warning that many areas where displaced people are now living are in low-lying coastal areas at risk of flooding or tidal surges.
'Hit rocks' Aid agencies said that three boats carrying between 100 and 200 people got into trouble after setting out on Monday night.

Jonathan Head BBC News, Bangkok

Some time last night, between 100 and 200 people tried to move by boat from the Nget Chaung IDP camp, near Pauktaw, to safer ground. According to aid agencies, only one of the boats had a motor; it was towing the other two. The lead boat sank. It is not clear what happened to the other two, but dozens of the families on board are still unaccounted for.
The camp houses nearly 8,000 displaced Rohingya Muslims, in an unsanitary location on flat, water-logged soil, very exposed to the weather.
It has presented relief workers trying to improve the living conditions of the IDPs with formidable challenges. With Cyclone Mahasen bearing down on it, evacuating the IDPs is now a matter of urgency.
Burmese authorities say they are moving some of the 130,000 displaced Rohingyas to safer places. Aid agencies believe more than 13,000 have been moved - but that leaves many more stuck in unprotected, makeshift camps.
Human Rights Watch has criticised the government for failing to assist all the vulnerable camps. It points out that Rohingyas are still restricted from moving by officials or by fear of attack by the Buddhist population.
International agencies have been pleading for months with the Burmese government to address the plight of the IDPs, but little has been done. The local Rakhine Buddhist population views the 800,000 or so Rohingyas as illegal immigrants and wants them expelled, a view shared by many other Burmese. No other country is willing to take them. Now they are about the bear the brunt of a powerful storm.

At least one boat, which was towing the other two smaller boats, sank, and dozens of people are still missing.

Barbara Manzi, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), told the BBC from Sittwe that search-and-rescue operations were ongoing.
"It appears that this boat left the camp with the blessing of the authorities before hitting rocks," she said.
Burmese officials began evacuations this week, after warnings the cyclone may hit neighbouring Bangladesh from Thursday, bringing heavy rain and flooding to western Burma.
This could hit an estimated 140,000 displaced people - mostly Rohingya - who are living in makeshift shelters in Rakhine, aid groups say.
They have been displaced since violent clashes between Rakhine's Muslim and Buddhist communities in June and October 2012.
"The government has been repeatedly warned to make appropriate arrangements for those displaced in Rakhine state," Isabelle Arradon, deputy Asia Pacific director of the rights group Amnesty International, said in a statement on Monday.
"Now thousands of lives are at stake unless targeted action is taken immediately to assist those most at risk."
Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said that if the government failed to evacuate those at risk, "any disaster that results will not be natural but man-made".
But some people have reportedly refused to leave because they fear having nowhere else to go.
"We are very worried about the cyclone... we do not have enough food to eat," a member of the Rohingya community told Agence-France Presse news agency.
"Many people are in trouble. But we have no idea what we should do."
, Cyclone Mahasen was north-east of Sri Lanka on Monday. It was expected to strengthen as it moved north, the agency said.according to nassa Five years ago, Cyclone Nargis struck Burma's Irrawaddy Delta region, killing at least 140,000 people and leaving three million in urgent need of assistanc

Meet Saudi Arabia's first female lawyer

Women have been able to study law in Saudi Arabia since 2005, but only now can they register to practice.

• Arwa Al-Hujaili has become Saudi Arabia's first female lawyer
• Women were able to study law, but could only practice as "legal consultants"
• The move came after years of online protests from female law graduates

LAEDING WOMENconnects you to extraordinary women of our time -- remarkable professionals who have made it to the top in all areas of business, the arts, sport, culture, science and more. (CNN) -- As Arwa Al-Hujaili begins her legal career, she has not only her own expectations to live up to, but those of a generation: she has just become Saudi Arabia's first female lawyer.

After three years of petitioning the Ministry of Justice, Al-Hujaili, 25, has finally received her registration to practice as a trainee lawyer, the first woman to do so.

"People tell me I'm a pioneer and I feel I need to live up to what they expect of me," says Al-Hujaili. "There's a great sense of responsibility. From now on, people will look at everything I do."

Al-Hujaili, who decided on a legal career while preparing for university, graduated from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah in 2010 and expected to be able to practice as a lawyer immediately.

People tell me I'm a pioneer, and I feel I need to live up to what they expect of me
Arwa al-Hujaili

But much to her frustration, she has spent three years in a professional no-man's land, able to work as "legal consultant" but not officially recognized as a lawyer.

Universities in Saudi Arabia began taking female law students in 2005 and the first graduates completed their studies in 2008. But the optimism soon wore off when female graduates found themselves unable to gain registration to practice.

Many of Al-Hujaili's classmates, frustrated by the lack of progress in Saudi Arabia, left the country to work abroad. But Al-Hujaili stayed in her hometown of Jeddah and continued to apply for registration.

In the meantime, some of her contemporaries began an online campaign to push for change, including a Facebook group called IAM A LAWYER a Twitter campaign and YouTube videos from women arguing their right to practice.

Saudi women allowed to ride bicycles 

Saudi women educated, unable to work

In October last year, after accepting a petition with 3,000 signatures submitted by a group of female law graduates, King Abdullah announced that women would be allowed to register as lawyers. However, the Ministry of Justice still wasn't processing applications from women.

A Saudi city exclusively for women

"I kept on following up, but they wouldn't give me an answer either way," says Al-Hujaili.

Saudi Olympic runner: 'Live your dreams'

A friend and vocal campaigner, Hanouf Al-Hazzaa, then wrote a newspaper article in which she pleaded with King Abdullah to intervene.

Al-Hazzaa had been one of Saudi Arabia's first batch of female law graduates in 2008, but had gone to the United States to practice after becoming disillusioned with the situation at home.

"I wrote about how depressing the situation was, saying here we were, many of us working for federal courts outside the Kingdom, because we had no future inside it," says Al-Hazzaa

Two days later, the Ministry of Justice announced they would start accepting applications and soon afterwards Al-Hujaili's application was granted.

Now working as a trainee lawyer and due to qualify fully in two years, Al-Hujaili hopes to pursue a career in family law to help other Saudi women.

"Many women really need to talk to female lawyers, and I want to help those women to get their rights," she says.

Success is a nice feeling, especially when it comes after tribulation.
Arwa al-Hujaili

Al-Hujaili knows the path ahead won't always be smooth.

"The social aspect is a very considerable one, for society to accept women lawyers, it's something new," she says. "It will be also challenging for the judiciary system to deal with female lawyers, but I think we can overcome these hardships if we prove ourselves as competent lawyers."

Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch, agrees that challenges remain for female lawyers.

"Saudi judges have a lot of leeway, and can remove a lawyer from a case," says Coogle. "She might face judges rejecting her counsel or not allowing her to speak, particularly if that judge is conservative and doesn't want women to speak in court."

Other female lawyers are now following in Al-Hujaili's footsteps and gaining registration, although exact numbers are unclear.

For Al-Hujaili, being able to pursue a legal career at home was well worth the wait.

"Success is a nice feeling, especially when it comes after tribulation," she says.

Campaign to nominate African midwife for Nobel Peace Prize

Ugandan midwife Esther Madudu has been chosen by AMREF to front its "Stand Up For African Mothers" campaign, an initiative aiming to train an additional 15,000 midwives by 2015.

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Midwife standing up for African mothers

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AFRICAN VOICE is a weekly show that highlights Africa's most engaging personalities, exploring the lives and passions of people who rarely open themselves up to the camera. (CNN) -- Dressed in a pink uniform, midwife Esther Madudu shuffles past rows of beds to check on the five babies she delivered the night before inside a small health center in rural eastern Uganda.

Lying underneath a sky blue mosquito net, a newborn girl wrapped in a white sheet tries to stretch her tiny body as Madudu slowly approaches.

"Esther is there," says the midwife, pointing to the baby girl resting next to her mother. "Esther Madudu -- they gave the baby my names, all my names, because yesterday it was born on my birthday," she continues, with a smile on her face.

"The mother was too excited because she never expected the baby to be alive so she said: 'these are all your names.' The pain was too much; she walked for a long distance and she thought the baby was dying."

Midwife stands up for African mothers

Ugandan midwife: We lack resources

How midwife lost her own baby

Pain medication is a rare luxury in the small village of Atitiri so Madudu had to rely on one special treatment to help the woman bring her baby to life.

"I gave her 'verbocain,'" says Madudu. "You know 'verbocain' is the only drug we can give them in Africa," she explains ironically. "'Verbocain' -- you verbally talk to the mother; giving her just consoling words and patting her, rubbing her back, until she gave birth."

'Stand Up For Mothers'

Madudu is well known here as a midwife who has a very good record of saving both mothers and babies during difficult deliveries.

But her reputation extends far beyond eastern Uganda. Since 2011, Madudu has become the poster girl for all of Africa's midwives, fronting an international campaign to highlight the plights of mothers and babies on the continent.

Called "STAND UP FOR AFRICAN MOTHERS" the initiative by the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) aims to ensure that all pregnant women throughout Africa have access to trained midwives to ensure a reduction in high maternal mortality rates.

In sub-Saharan Africa, AMREF says 200,000 women die every year from complications during pregnancy or childbirth -- that's 60% of the global total.

Source: Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed, UNICEF, 2012.

"In Africa, maternal mortality death is really unacceptably high," says Abenet Berhanu, AMREF country director for Uganda

The group, one of Africa's top health and development research organizations, works together with local authorities to improve education and facilitation of care.

It also aims to train 15,000 midwives by 2015 to equip them with the necessary skills to maintain good health and has launched an online petition to symbolically nominate Madudu as a candidate for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.

We hope to create a future where no baby is left alone, where no mother dies while giving birth.
Esther Madudu, Ugandan midwife

"She really has a passion for her work," says Berhanu of Madudu. "She has been working extra hours; she is passionate in handling mothers," he adds. "This [the nomination] is in recognition for all midwives who have been working under challenging circumstances."

To support the "Stand Up For African Mothers" campaign, Madudu has visited different countries giving several speeches to draw attention to the issue of maternal mortality in Africa.

"This campaign is not a political campaign," explains Madudu. "It is just a campaign which is creating awareness that there is death, maternal mortality rate which is high in Africa; mothers are dying; babies are dying. The solution should be, we train midwives," she says.

Devotion

Like many maternity clinics in rural parts of Africa, the health center in Atitiri is lacking several necessary resources -- shortage of running water, electricity challenges, broken beds and scarcity of medicines all make Madudu's job very difficult.

But despite the challenges, the midwife extraordinaire remains devoted to her patients.

A mother of two, Madudu has chosen to live hours away from her family to be able to cater to the women that need her.

"I opted to give my children to my mother, not because I don't love them," she says. "I love my children but because I could not have time for them, to cook for them, take care of them, because of my tight schedule of duties."

Madudu can completely identify with the fears of the mothers she helps. Soon after becoming a midwife, she suffered herself the cruel experience of losing a child.

"I am a victim of mortality because I lost my baby during child birth," recalls Madudu. "It was a terrible condition for me; it was psychological torture, because a midwife losing a baby? And yet I'm the one saving other babies," she adds.

"It was terrible and I said 'no mother should lose a baby; I'll try my level best, I will improvise, whatever I can, so long as I have the knowledge to save that woman and her baby.'"

And that's what she's been doing ever since, working tirelessly to ensure that mothers get the right treatment during pregnancy and child birth.

She is optimistic that the "Stand Up For Afican Mothers" campaign will create much needed awareness of the plights of the people she's helping.

"We hope to create a future where no baby is left alone, where no mother dies while giving birth," she says. "That is my hope.

Syria-Turkey tension: Reyhanli bombings tear apart communities

By Wyre Davies BBC News, Reyhanli, Turkey

Wyre Davies reports from devastated Reyhanli

Three days after huge car bombings in a Turkish border town, it is still not clear who carried out the attacks, although Turkey continues to blame agents of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.

In the town of Reyhanli itself, the clear-up has begun but many locals are angry with the loss of life and property.
In some cases people are venting their anger on the thousands of refugees from Syria who, until the bombings, were welcomed to the area with open arms.
When Dr Najeb al Hadal fled across the Syrian border to the safety of Turkey six months ago, he was greeted by people who were horrified by the stories coming out of the civil war in Syria.
The doctor, his wife Esmahan and their five children were lucky to escape with their lives after their home in Idlib province was deliberately destroyed by forces loyal to the Assad regime.
Ugly new realities "There was a death sentence on my head," Dr Hadal tells me. "They knew I was treating the wounded from the fighting and had decided to get rid of me."
The family settled in well to their new home, a Spartan but comfortable apartment in the Turkish town of Reyhanli. The doctor and his wife both started work in local clinics treating Syrian refugees, and some locals too - he is an urologist and Esmahan is a gynaecologist.

Dr Hadal and his family fled Syria after their home was destroyed

But two days ago, everything changed.
On Saturday, two huge car bombs exploded in the centre of Reyhanli. Forty-six people were killed, mainly local Turks but some Syrian refugees as well.
Turkey has blamed the attack on agents of the Assad government. Damascus has denied the accusations, and the war of words between the two former close allies has reached dangerous levels, although Turkey has insisted it will not become embroiled in Syria's conflict.
For Syrian refuges the car bombings brought home some ugly new realities.
Huge loss On Saturday afternoon, amid chaotic scenes immediately after the bombings, Dr Hadal was ferrying the wounded to local hospitals in his car.

After what happened I've told everyone to keep a low profile. We haven't gone out of the house for two days”

Dr Najeb al Hadal Syrian refugee

At one point he left his vehicle and took his injured passenger inside to the emergency room for treatment. When he returned, Dr Hadal's car had been smashed up, the windscreen broken and the tyres slashed - all because it had, clearly visible, Syrian number plates.

Even though most locals here sympathise with the plight of Assad's opponents inside Syria, some say the sheer number of refugees has brought trouble to these border towns in Turkey.
There were very few Syrians in the centre of Reyhanli today. One man, identified as Syrian, was quickly surrounded, pushed around and screamed at by a mob of locals. He quickly made his escape.
Reyhanli's residents are justifiably angry. Their town is in ruins, hundreds of business have been destroyed or damaged and it will take a long time to get over the huge loss of life.
They blame everyone: their own government for giving aid and support to opponents of the Assad regime; the thousands of refugees who have inadvertently and unwillingly made the town a target for Assad's agents in Turkey; the media too, is rounded upon, all tarred with the same brush for its fear to criticise the Turkish government's policy on Syria.
As we tried to film among the ruins of Reyhanli's main square we were physically stopped and harassed by locals.
"You all come here and tell lies," shouted one man as my pleas to be allowed to continue filming fell on ears deafened by the devastating impact of Saturday's bombs.
There was no point hanging around. It was not violent but the residents of this border town are angry and their suspects are the usual ones.
'Everyone is suffering' Dr Hadal, his wife and their children all hope it will blow over and the town will once again feel as safe as it did just a week ago.
"After what happened I've told everyone to keep a low profile. We haven't gone out of the house for two days," says the doctor.

His wife interjects.
"The blood on the streets on Saturday was Syrian and Turkish blood," she says. "You can't separate these things, everyone is suffering."
Whoever carried out the bombings has deliberately and successfully driven a wedge between the two communities who always coexisted, even before the war with cross-border trade and their historic ties.
How Turkey's government responds to the bombings will be crucial.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said his country is not going to become dragged into Syria's war and the possibility of a full-scale regional conflict. But nor can he realistically reverse his commitment to support President Assad's opponents and shelter the thousands of refuges fleeing the fighting.
Dr Hadal and his family were lucky to escape from a brutal, vindictive regime in Syria.
They know that, one day, they will return to their homeland. But they are desperate not to be driven out of their adoptive home in Reyhanli - a town where they were once made to feel so welcome.