Terrifying & True | Urban Legends of Pakistan

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Vanishing hitchhikers, crying ghost children begging
for your help. A madman intentionally spreading

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aids to harm people. When you
hear these things, you think of urban

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legends, and you'd be correct.
Only these urban legends aren't from the United

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States of America, or England or
even the English speaking world. They're from

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Pakistan. What you are about to
continue the spoons to benoy you. Based

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on witness accounts, testimonies, and
public record, this is terrifying and true.

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Nothing captures the imagination quite like the
unexplainable. Perhaps that's why, despite

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the fear they evoke, stories of
paranormal encounters continue to captivate so many people

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in a country like Pakistan, where
superstition and folklore are still gospel truth to

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a majority, everyone knows at least
one person who has a tale or two

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to tell. Inhabited for millennia,
Sucre and the rest of Upper Sinned are

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full of such stories. I asked
a friend of the show to compile some

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just for us to listen to,
and believe me, they are eerie,

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to say the least. And we'll
be getting to those stories after these quick

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words from our sponsors. Whether it's
the belief among those who live around suks

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Hindu Dharamshala that a woman in black
patrols the rooftop of a nearby building,

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or the numerous claims of hearing shrill
shrieks at night while passing across many a

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deserted house. Almost every town and
city an Upper Sind is full of such

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stories that many residents will swear actually
happen. Some swear they saw a beheaded

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man walk along the road next to
eid Gha, while others speak with fear

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of demonic encounters that have given certain
buildings and spots a frightening reputation as a

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result. Even today, there are
many properties in Sind that are deserted because

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people believe they are occupied by supernatural
entities. Take, for instance, an

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age old building an old suker that
has gained the name of Jinnett Building.

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Those who live near by trade stories
of horrific encounters that range from seeing lights

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in the building flick on and off
by themselves to witnessing actual gins or demons

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on its rooftop. As these stories
passed on for years, people would avoid

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going near the building for fear of
being possessed or hurt by supernatural forces.

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However, two years ago a property
developer purchased and demolished the property, replacing

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it with a residential plaza. For
now, at least, the scary stories

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seemed to have gone away along with
the building itself. Similarly, a four

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story pre partition era building at Bunder
Road, which translates roughly to Monkey Road

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in Succor, is believed to be
a dwelling place for paranormal beings. Ring

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a visit to the building, it
was found that two floors were occupied by

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three families, but the third and
fourth floors were lying vacant. When the

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occupants of the building were asked why
this was so, their answer was that

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these two floors are occupied by supernatural
entities. They further said that neither we

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interfere in their area nor do they
bother us. Thus we live in harmony.

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Sounds pretty reasonable, albeit if it
involves spirits of some sort. Every

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true Pakistani has heard the tale of
the Karzaz Choral once or more than once

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in their lifetime. The people of
Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan,

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are more than excited to narrate the
legend every time they cross the Karzaz Road,

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and every single time it scares the
life out of the listener. The

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story goes like this, a bride's
groom died on the Carjaz Road. She

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was truly heartbroken by the incident and
also passed away. Now, legend has

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it that the bride still roams the
streets where her husband allegedly died. The

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Carzaz Cherail. Cherail is referred to
as a soul of a person who has

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died but cannot go to purgatory is
a story that started many rumors about the

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Carzaz area. Currently, social media
is flooded with people claiming they've sighted ghosts

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in that specific area. The most
famous sighting is of a child hanging from

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the window of uninhabited houses. Regardless, the most well known ghost story and

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the real attraction of the Carzaz Road
will always be the Carzaz Cherail Bride.

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Another place in Karachi is called the
Devil's Point. According to the legend,

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there have been many reports of voodoo, dark magic, and ghost sightings in

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that location. People have also claimed
that they've seen a creepy and evil looking

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man sitting on a chair in the
water, chanting something evil. Those who

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have seen this man were always too
apprehensive to approach him, their fear guiding

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them more than reason or curiosity.
I know if I saw a scary old

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man floating in the water on a
chair making eerie, chanting noises, I

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would probably run in the opposite direction, and I would definitely never look back.

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Then again, if I myself were
in Pakistan, I don't know that

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I would ever go to a place
that's known as Devil's Point. I think

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it's more likely I would want to
just a good place to eat. Not

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all of the legends of Pakistan that
are terrifying or related to the supernatural or

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the paranormal. No, this terrifying
story is about when people started to contract

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AIDS randomly. This infamous Pakistani urban
legend that was circulated back in nineteen ninety

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eight says that random victims who attended
a crowded movie in a theater or nightclub

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would be injected with aids. There
are so many chain letters that circulated all

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over the internet, and here is
an example of just one. Please check

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your chairs when going to the movie
theaters. An incident occurred when a friend's

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co worker went to sit in a
chair and something was poking her. She

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then got up and found that it
was a needle with a little note at

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the end it said, welcome to
the real world. You are HIV positive.

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To this day, the gang or
person behind that sinister act is unknown,

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let alone if the occurrence was real
or simply fodder for a dark chain

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letter. There were many similar stories
of HIV being spread intentionally and with the

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goal to harm in the United States, but it's fascinating that Pakistan had its

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own version. Another Pakistani story that
I remember hearing a version of as a

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young boy in the Midwest of the
United States was the Vanishing hitchhiker. This

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is a very common urban legend that
exists in a bunch of other countries,

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especially the United Kingdom, Algeria,
Korea, and Romania. The story goes

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like this. A young man is
driving alone at night when all of a

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sudden he spots a beautiful woman on
the side of the road who asks him

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for a ride. He picks her
up and she tells him that she wants

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to go straight home. Once they
begin driving, she falls asleep in the

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back seat, so when they get
to her house, the man knocks on

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the door and tells the mother that
he has her daughter in his car,

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who is fast asleep, but in
a shocking turn, she tells the man

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that this can't be possible because her
daughter has been dead for several years.

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When the man goes back to his
car to check the back seat, all

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that remains are her clothes. There's
no sign of the missing girl anywhere.

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This story I had never heard about
until this compilation was created for the show.

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This is about the Hathorah group or
the Hammer Group. Karachi was developing

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back in the nineteen seventies and eighties, and it was far from the metropolis

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it is today. In the late
nineteen eighties, the city of Karachi had

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an increase in murders and they were
all done in a very similar manner.

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At first, the police suspected that
the killings were done by a sadistic serial

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killer, but then the police began
to theorize that the murders were actually done

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by a group of people who went
out on a killing rampage of sorts.

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This group would supposedly break into your
house, steal all your valuables, and

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then hammer you to death. This
stirred up a lot of panic in the

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city, which caused all of its
residents to hire guards and beef up their

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security. The last known case was
reported in May of nineteen eighty six,

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but no arrests were ever made,
and the history of the Hathorah group remains

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unsolved to this day. This next
story is especially chilling. It's about forty

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dead children. The tallest peak in
the Chiltan Range is said to be haunted

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by the ghosts of forty some dead
children. According to this local urban legend,

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a couple left forty babies on top
of this peak to either survive on

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their own or die. Many have
claimed that if you go to this peak

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at night, you can hear children
crying out in sadness and bagging you and

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pleading you to climb up the mountain
and rescue them. The legend of Pichal

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Perry roughly translated as back footed chanting
Pachal Perry gets the said creature to make

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an actual physical appearance. This demonic, which apparently takes on two forms.

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According to the more common version,
she appears as a beautiful woman who targets

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vulnerable men. She is completely disguised
except for her feet which point backwards,

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but in her true form, she
is long faced and scary eyed with dirty

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fingers. A hunchback, messy hair
and bloody clothes, and her still backward

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pointing feet. According to one version, Pichal Perry kills people by ingesting their

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blood or ripping out their vital organs
from their bodies. Our final example of

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first hand pakistan any urban legends is
the Curse of Sudden Death Lodge, which

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is a tale of a Karachi based
pier whose tomb was taken care of by

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a naked fakir who sat there for
over fifty years. Pre the nineteen forty

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seven partition, an affluent Parsi merchant
decided to erect his bungalow on that same

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site. The fakir begged the merchant
to reconsider his decision that would disturb the

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pier's resting place. Unmoved, the
merchant proceeded with his plans, determined to

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raise the tomb and evict the fakir. The fakir cursed the merchant, saying

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the building would never serve the purpose
and died soon after. Construction work commenced,

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during which three builders and the chaukidar
met mysterious deaths. The day the

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family moved in. After completion of
the construction, a neph you fell down

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the staircase and died on the spot. Several days later, their son fell

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off the railings, ruptured his spleen, and also died. The third their

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grandson caught a nail in his wrist
that got infected and caused him death by

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sepsis. Later, the merchant himself
met with a fatal accident. The house

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was then sold to the real family, whose manager suddenly died of cholera within

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a few short weeks, and in
a bizarre twist of events, mister RealD

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slid his wife's throat in that house
before taking his own life. Consequently,

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the mansion became known as Sudden Death
Lodge and was raised in nineteen twenty five.

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It remained a junkyard until the site
was later chosen for Karachi's new US

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embassy. Construction began in September of
nineteen fifty seven, but similar events were

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experienced the mysterious death of an electrician
at work. This was probably the first

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time in the US State Department's history
that it bowed to superstition, altering the

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principal architectural design and sparing the exact
site of the pier's tomb. While there

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have been no further known deaths on
and around the said location. It is

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believed that the curse continues to exist
to this date. But in more subtle

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ways, ghost stories and curses are
more than just random of folklore in Pakistan.

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Pakistan is an ancient place where legend
often holds gospel truth to the masses.

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Remember that everyone knows that one person
who has a tale or two to

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tell, and all of them no
somebody who has personally experienced said urban legend.

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This episode definitely brought a lot of
fascination to me. I've always loved

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those campfire stories and urban legends that
we share under hushed breaths at slumber parties

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and late night car rides. But
to have some stories direct from Pakistan,

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a place that is very, very
different than the United States, is very

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eye opening, because in reality,
we're not so different. After all,

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a lot of the stories we've heard
here today I've heard similar versions of in

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places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Upstate
New York, Michigan, Indiana, and

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Kentucky. Maybe a few other states
too, but those in particular I've explored

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the folklore. I don't know what
that says. Does that say that the

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paranormal is similar everywhere, or that
the human imagination and the mind's way of

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understanding things is a very human trade. Indeed, remember it doesn't matter if

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we grew up on separate sides of
the earth, with totally different religions,

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totally different societies, totally different entertainment, totally different folklore. We all end

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up just being human. And part
of being human is being afraid of the

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things you don't understand, but also
being fascinated with figuring it all out.

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After all, that's why you're here
right now, right You want to hear

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something terrifying that just might be true. So what do you think about these

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Pakistani stories? Terrifying and True is
narrated by Enrique Kuto. It's executive produced

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by Rob Fields, produced by Daniel
Wilder, with original theme music by Ray

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Maddis. If you have a story
you'd like us to cover on the program,

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send us an email at Weekly Spooky
at gmail dot com. And if

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For as little as one dollar a month,

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say a big thank you to our Patreon

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podcast boosters, folks who page us
a little bit more to hear their names

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at the end of the show,
and they are Johnny Nicks, bobotopia dot

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com, Megan Hua, Julia Kirsh, Brent McCullough, Steve King, Karen

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We met, Jack Kerr and Craig
Cohen. Thank you all so much,

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and we'll see you next time right
here on Weekly Spooky and Terrifying and True