ISLAMABAD:
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has formed a commission to ‘assess and investigate’ Pakistan’s plan to dig out trenches along the border with Afghanistan.
“As reports suggest, the Pakistani forces have started digging trenches along the artificial Durand Line, the president of Afghanistan has formed a team of ministers and officials to investigate the matter,” said a statement posted on Karzai’s website.
According to the statement, Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister will head the commission which will also comprise deputy foreign, defence and border and tribal affairs ministers. Technical experts will also be part of the team.
“The team will examine all relevant documents and historical evidence to determine the status of the excavations and will submit a report as soon as possible,” it said.
Frontier Corps (FC) in Balochistan had earlier said the proposed 480-kilometre-long trenches were aimed at curbing ‘cross-border incursions’ of terrorists and smugglers into Pakistan.
According to the FC, nearly 235-km of the trench have already been dug and the remaining part is expected to be completed by October 30.
Talking to Voice of America (VoA), Pakistan Army’s spokesman Major-General Asim Saleem Bajwa said the project was part of administrative and security measures Pakistan had undertaken to secure the border with Afghanistan.
“We have to protect and secure our borders. So, anything that is done on this side of the border remaining within our own area is very much legal,” VoA quoted Bajwa as saying on Sunday.
However, as there is no let-up in Pak-Afghan tensions over cross-border attacks, the issue of trenches could vitiate the already tense relationship.
Afghan lawmakers have also opposed digging of trenches and said the issue will be taken to the UN and other international forums.
Members of the Senate of Masharanu Jirga claimed the move is aimed at “dividing the Pashun living on both sides of the Durand Line,” Pajhwok news agency reported on Sunday.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 15th, 2014.
COMMENTS (12)
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@Hari Om: I love how Indians speak on behalf of us Pashtuns. Since British times we have been divided from Afghanistan. Bacha Khan even fought for a united INDIA, not Afghanistan. Our focus turned away from Afghanistan over a century ago, and now you think we want to go back to a Tajik dominated country? This isn't the 1950s. Pashtuns are firmly integrated into Pakistan. This isn't Kashmir either, we aren't fighting to independence or unification with another country. Speaking of Kashmir, who first invaded in 1948? PASHTUN tribesmen fighting for PAKISTAN.
@Pir Roshan: Sir, please try to cross the above mentioned irrelevant border freely please. You should be amazed..
A meter wide & 2 metre deep trench is meaningless for any purpose let alone determined insurgents. It will not be-fool the world. Why would Pashtun recognise the Durand Line that even the border between Pakistani & Indian Punab is getting irrelevant?
Wise of President Karzai to be wary of this event as digging trenches is a sly tactic of Pakistan’s Punjabi Establishment to solidify usurpation of Afghan land via false justification of Durand Line Treaty. The “Durand Line” is a product of British colonial bullying of Afghanistan and has no place in the modern world. India must assure Afghanistan of unstinted support for upholding Afghan commission’s findings that this is a sly tactic of Pakistan’s Punjabi Establishment to usurp Afghan land. India must use all its consulates in Afghanistan to work to liberate Afghan lands under neo-colonial occupation of Pakistan’s Punjabi Establishment using false justification of Durand Line Treaty. India must disabuse Pakistan of any notion that when it comes to Afghanistan, Pakistan is the modern version of colonial Britain that is entitled to run amok in Afghanistan.
@Fareed: Your ignorance on the subject does deserve a big laugh.
Always crying about fighters coming from Pakistan, then you should be pleased that Pakistan is securing the border for any such movement but looks like its not the case!
Honestly as an Afghan I am quit happy for the trench cause we have suffered for decades from other side of durand line. The terrorist organizations who launch attack against Afghanistan they all live on other side of the line and their factories (madrassas) are all located on the other side of the durand line...if they dig trenches I think we should plant mines for terrorist as a welcome note!!!
What a joke.. why dont you dig those trenches around queta shura and also around haqani's house in your city. Cant stopp laughing at these people..
It is better to make a wall like made for Jooj Majooj and the way Chinese built a Great Wall of China to keep these butcher's away from the Pakistan. Well done PAK army it is though a late but a wise move...
If we want to secure our borders we have to (humanely) repatriate the 3m Afghans roaming freely accross the country.
This is what the US would do if they had lost 60,000 civiliians