In the West, though, Quetta is better known as the home of the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban ruling council that found sanctuary here, with ISI support, after the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. As Western pressure on Pakistan over their presence in Quetta grew, those fighters vanished from the streets. But on my first trip to the city, in 2004, they circulated openly. At the Talib Cassette Centre, a store in the main bazaar that sold audiotapes of anti-Western sermons and posters of Osama bin Laden, I bumped into a pair of cheery young men in black turbans. They were back from a
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