Bor Jan, a wispy-bearded Afghan, whipped a scrap of paper from a pocket of his baggy trousers. "Find any Muslims who are friends of the infidel and kill them," he read aloud. Across the nearby border with Afghanistan, America has dispatched soldiers to deter Mr Jan and his Taliban fellows from carrying out their orders. But in Quetta, capital of Baluchistan, a sprawling western province, Mr Jan could at least rant at his leisure. Nothing irks America's men in Afghanistan more than their enemy's propensity to flee into Pakistan, there to rest and re-arm, seemingly at will. Although—at the top level, at least-a firm American ally since the September nth attacks, Pakistan refuses to allow American boots on its soil. It has maintained that it can deal with any Taliban seeking refuge in its territory-which after all was where the movement was begun.
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