From his vantage point at the entrance of the half-built shrine to the al-Qa’ida martyrs in Khowst the caretaker and his mentally retarded friend watch quietly as dozens of diseased and desperate pilgrims stream in every day from all over the Taliban-supporting borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They come to pray over the rudimentary graves on the outskirts of the Afghan city, seeking the holy powers of the dead to heal the living or to conceive new life, or just seeking the martyrs’ blessings before a journey or at the start of a business enterprise.Full Story