Daily Times

Pakistan on Saturday clapped back at the Taliban deputy foreign minister’s rejection of 2,640-kilometer Durand Line as the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, saying such “fanciful” claims could not change the geographical and historical facts.

Taliban Deputy FM Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai said that Afghanistan would never recognize the Durand Line as its official border with Pakistan, Afghan news agency Khaama Press reported. The declaration was made during an event in Logar commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Durand Line was established in 1893 through an agreement between Sir Mortimer Durand, a representative of British India, and Afghanistan’s emir, Abdur Rahman Khan, bifurcating tribal areas and dividing ethnic Pashtuns and Baloch people between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

From the time Pakistan gained its independence in 1947 till today, the line serves as a border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. While Pakistan says the Durand Line is the official border between the two states, Afghanistan has historically rejected the same.

In response to media queries about Stanikzai’s statement, Pakistan’s foreign ministry described the comments as “self-serving” and an attempt to divert attention from Islamabad’s security concerns.

“Any self-serving and fanciful claims regarding the legality and sanctity of the Pak-Afghan border cannot change the facts of geography, history and international law,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, a Pakistan foreign ministry spokeswoman, said in a statement.

“The Afghan side will be well advised to address Pakistan’s genuine security concerns than try to divert public attention by such unfortunate public pronouncements.”

The development comes amid already strained ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan for the last more than a year due to a surge in militant attacks, including suicide bombings, in Pakistan’s northwestern and southwestern parts that border Afghanistan.

The attacks prompted Islamabad last year to order all illegal immigrants, mostly Afghans, to leave Pakistan. More than half a million Afghans, some of whom had been living in Pakistan for decades, have since gone back or been expelled to the Taliban-led Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, however, said at the time his government was only against irregulated travel and Afghans with valid documents could travel to Pakistan.

In her statement on Saturday, Baloch said Pakistan was committed to facilitating fully regulated movement of people and goods across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, based on norms of “interstate relations.”

“We will continue to take steps to this end,” Baloch added.