Quetta: Taliban capital

Quetta: Taliban capital
Quetta is a frontier city about a three-hour drive from Kandahar in Afghanistan. During the British empire, it was a garrison and still has a large army cantonment. The provincial capital of Baluchistan, a vast, sparsely populated region, has since the 1980s become the home of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees, fleeing war in their home country. The ethnic Baluch are in a minority in the city, which is dominated by Pashtuns, the biggest ethnic group in Afghanistan, making it easy for Afghans to melt into Quetta. After 9/11, when the US and allies invaded Afghan, it is said that the Taliban leadership shifted from Kandahar to Quetta. Most notoriously, the high altitude city of about one million people is home to the "Quetta shura", the Taliban's ruling council, which directs the insurgency across the border.