BLOOMBERG
How Pakistan Won the War in Afghanistan
by Eli Lake
September 9, 2021

For much of the war on terror that began after 9/11, Pakistan played a double game. It occasionally helped track and detain al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. In 2010, Pakistani and U.S. special operations forces arrested Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Karachi. All the while, however, elements of the Pakistani military and intelligence services provided sanctuary, funding and training for the Taliban and its allies in the lethal terrorist group known as the Haqqani network. For the first 10 years of the Afghanistan war, this was an issue that the U.S. and Pakistan preferred to debate in private. READ MORE

BESA Taliban Victory Threatens to Be a Double-Edged Sword for Pakistan Pakistani efforts to exploit the Taliban victory in Afghanistan threaten to reinforce ultra-conservative inclinations in Pakistan itself, the world’s second-most populous Muslim majority country, long accused of supporting militant religious groups.