Durand Line Dispute Back in Focus

Context

The failure of peace negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan has made a fresh issue of the long standing controversial Durand Line which is one of the most sensitive and contentious borders of South Asia.

History of the Durand Line

• The Durand Line (named after the Durand brothers) is an approximate 2,640-kilometre border between the Iran border in the west and the China border in the east, traversing the Karakoram mountains, Hindu Kush ranges and the Registan desert.
• It was delimited in 1893 between Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, the Foreign Secretary of British India and Emir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan.
• The treaty divided the tribal territory of the Pashtune, separated the ethnic groups and handed over Balochistan to British India.

Post-Partition Developments

• The Durand Line was passed over to Pakistan as the international border.
• Afghanistan however cast out the validity of the agreement citing that it was a fruit of colonial pressure, short lived and never accepted by the Afghans.
• Pashtunistan Demand: Pashtuns on both sides wanted an independent state called Pashtunistan and this complicated the relation between Pakistan and Afghans.
• Taliban: Although Taliban has since changed their stand, like other past Afghan regimes, the Taliban do not acknowledge the Durand Line as a boundary with the international system.

Pakistan and Afghanistan Tensions in Recent Years

• Pakistan Border Fencing: In 2017, Pakistan started fencing the Durand Line in order to contain insurgency and illegal crossings.
  • • This is perceived as a one-sided and unlawful action in Afghanistan.
• Failed Peace Talks: The most recent set of Pakistan-Taliban negotiations led by Turkey and Qatar did not go through with exchanged cross-border firing and retaliatory actions.

Impact on the Region

• Economic pressure on Afghanistan: To the extent that Afghanistan is heavily dependent on transit business by way of Pakistan, any closing is disastrous to routine trade and relief efforts.
• Weakens the Pakistani Influence: Pakistan will not be allowed to be a trade route in the connection of South Asia to Central Asia because of instability.
• Strategic Opportunity to India: Afghanistan can seek a closer economic relationship with India (via Chabahar Port and the International North-South Transport Corridor), not using Pakistan.
• People-to-People Strain: Border villages, families and markets on the frontier are the ones that have to suffer disruptions.
• Security Threats Over Terror Spillovers: Instability along the Durand Line enhances the transit of arms, drugs and financing of terror in the area.
  • • LeT and JeM groups have in the past employed Afghanistan-Pakistan instability to regroup a threat to India.

Way Ahead

• Pakistan and Afghanistan need to institutionalise frequent security and border-management discussions in order to avoid miscalculation and offsetting escalation.
• The reopening of the border crossings with the mutually agreed protocols will stabilize the trade and decrease humanitarian sufferings.
• The local tensions can be handled through confidence-building interventions by tribal elders, civil society and communities along the borders.

Source: The Hindu

Mains PYQ

(Q) The proposed withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Afghanistan in 2014 is fraught with major security implications for the countries of the region. Examine in light of the fact that India is faced with a plethora of challenges and needs to safeguard its own strategic interests. (2013)

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