Pakistan is no ally of the United States and hasn’t been for years, but no one in Washington knows that yet.

“Pakistan joins hand with Taliban to destroy Afghan identity, culture: Former Pak senator,” WebIndia123, November 12, 2021:

A former senator of Pakistan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has accused Islamabad of joining hands with the Taliban to “destroy” Afghan identity and its culture.

In an interview with the Amsterdam-based European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), Afrasiab Khattak, who is also a Pashtun rights activist said, “Pakistan expanded into Afghanistan through its strategic depth policy.

During the Afghan civil war, the Pakistani military establishment, aided by the US and the Arab Gulf States, enrolled Afghan refugees in Pakistani madrassas to brainwash them with extremist Islamist ideologies”.

Khattak believes that these measures were aimed at ultimately emphasising the Afghans’ Muslim identity over their identity as Afghans and Pashtuns, and thereby deconstructing the Afghan/Pashtun component of their communal identity.