JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN — A group of Game of Thrones fans in Afghanistan have taken their love of the show to an impressive new level, staging a recreation of last week's 'Red Wedding' massacre by gunning down a real-life wedding party in Kunar Province.
"We made it about as authentic as we could," said gunman Tariq Saifullah, referring to the attack in the Korengal Valley that left seven dead and twenty wounded. "We even started by stabbing a pregnant woman to death, but there was some confusion since that's typically done by the groom following the ceremony."
While deploring the violence, HBO executives are hopeful that the killings are a sign that more and more people in this nation of 31 million potential viewers are watching the show. Although popular around the world, Game of Thrones has been slow to catch on in a country that views the sudden death of prominent figures, constant betrayals, and shifting alliances, set against a background of rape and carnage — as just another Thursday.
"The biggest problem we've had is there's nothing the show can do that doesn't already happen in a typical week here," said Farooq Sharif, a spokesman for HBO Pakistan, which also services Afghanistan.
