Pakistan not only fenced the Durand Line but has also reportedly constructed military facilities and outposts in some areas deep inside Afghan territory during the tenure of the National Unity Government (NUG). In the latest incident, Pakistani forces have crossed the zero-point area and tried to build more military installations inside Afghan territory, drawing a military response from Afghan forces. According to Afghan officials in eastern Kunar province, the skirmish has left three Afghan women martyred and several other people wounded.
NUG’s position on Pakistan was unfortunately questionable from the very beginning. The current government leadership, especially President Ashraf Ghani, became needlessly closer to Pakistan, and flouted some key principles which must have been taken into consisderation in ties with Islamabad. President Ghani hoped that Pakistan would relinquish its support for the militants, or drag them to the negotiating table with Afghan government, but his calculus proved wrong. He became close to Pakistan to an extent that even a controversial intelligence-sharing deal was signed with the country’s notorious spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which was later abrogated due to the growing tide of criticism at his administration when media leaked it.
Later on, the government’s reaction to the construction of a fence topped with barbed wire along the Durand Line was not so strong. The government’s opposition to the fencing was as if it did not have enough backing to keep Afghanistan’s Durand Line cause alive. It must have strongly responded to the incursion and made it clear to the world that Pakistan was fencing a dividing line that Afghanistan has never officially recognized as a border, and that it was a unilateral move which would only create challenges for Afghan people living on both sides of the de facto boundary. Terrorism cannot be stopped with barbed wire. It rather requires political will, something which Islamabad lacks because anti-Afghan government elements continue to enjoy safe havens and state support in Pakistan.
Afghan government must take a hard line on Pakistani incursions along the Durand Line. Afghanistan’s international allies and the world must be told that Pakistan continues to engage in acts of aggression against Afghanistan, and therefore must face the music. Kabul’s soft-line neither can prevent Islamabad from playing a destructive role in the country nor is beneficial to Afghanistan’s Durand Line cause.
