A few days after the Pakistan Army chief General Asim Munir threatened to destroy Afghanistan, the Taliban has once again outrightly denied the Durand Line as a legitimate border between both countries.
The 2640 km-long Durand line- which serves as a de facto border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan has remained disputed since its inception in 1893 as a treaty between colonial India under British rule and Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, the then-ruler of Afghanistan.
The Acting Afghan Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs Noorullah Noori termed the Durand line as “imaginary one” and that it does not represent the official border between both nations. During his address to the media while on a visit to the Torkham border crossing, Noori said, “We do not have a formal border with Pakistan and there is no zero point as well. This (Durand Line) is an imaginary line between us.”
Interestingly, the Taliban regime raked up the issue of the Durand line shortly after the Pak Army Chief General Asim Munir threatened to destroy Afghanistan for the security of the citizens of his country.
Historically, none of the Afghan regimes, be it the democratic or the current Taliban, has ever recognised the Durand line as the official border. This has led to frequent cross-border skirmishes between both countries.
The Afghan cites the Durand line as a result of the British policy of divide and rule that divided the ethnic Pashtuns. Contrary to this Pakistan maintains that the Durand line is a permanent border between both countries.
The porous border has 18 crossing points and facilitates trade as well as the movement of people between both countries. However, it also facilitates the militants by allowing them to enter Pakistan and launch attacks on Pak army.
To counter this, the Pakistani military started to fence the border, a move that Kabul condemned. However, since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, the border dispute has aggravated substantially. The Taliban fighters even broke the fencing along the Durand line and there were several instances of cross-border firing.
Pakistan’s bid to find a strategic depth in Afghanistan is now starting to backfire. Today it is the Afghan Taliban which has found a strategic depth in Pakistan by providing a haven to the TTP, a militant group that has carried out numerous attacks against the Pak army.
