The Taliban Pick Fight Over Border With Pakistan
Last August, the prominent Pakistan celebrated after the Taliban seized power in Kabul, including Prime Minister Imran Khan, the leader of Islamic political parties, media leaders, and retired military officers. This group has long received Pakistani support, and a victory conveyed by several strategic wins for Islamabad: This ensures the government is friendly in Kabul and the role is reduced to New Delhi, a partner near the non-Taliban government after 2001.
But for several days it shows that Pakistan’s involvement with the Taliban regime will not be cakewalk. Taliban fighters have clashed with the Pakistani army installing a fence along the Afghan-Pakistani border, known as the Durand line. Pakistan began the fence in 2014 to reduce cross-border and smuggling militancy. He said 94 percent of the border had been fenced off.
On December 19, Taliban members confiscated barbed wire prepared by Pakistani forces in Nangarhar, Afghanistan province, and warned them not to do more fences. On December 30, a similar incident occurred in Nimroz Province. Taliban officials understated the meaning of clashes first, but the second incident produced a stronger reaction.
A spokesman for the Afghan defense ministries said on Sunday that Pakistan had “the right to establish a barbed wire along the Durand route and separate the tribe” -A refers to Ethnic Pashtun, who lived on both sides of the border. Over another Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, rejected the fence and border itself: “The Durand Line has been divided by one nation on both sides. We don’t want at all. “
The Durand line emerged from 1893 agreements between Afghanistan and a British colonial official, but the Afghan government had denied the border since Pakistani independence in 1947. Taliban, including the founder of Mullah Mohammad Omar, has been too opposition this group seems to be maintained now that leads the government.
However, the Taliban have other possible motivations to reject the construction of the fence. They could declare their independence to prove that they were not the Proxy of Pakistan and playing Pashtun nationalist cards to obtain the legitimacy of the greatest ethnic group Afghanistan. There are other practical considerations, too. The trading fence of border and transit constraints – no matter small people considering that Taliban members still have business and family in Pakistan.
This week, Pakistan and the Taliban government promised to resolve border tensions with the conversation. But Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi did not sound completely sure. “We … contact with the Afghan government,” he said. “Hopefully, we will be able to overcome the problem diplomatically.” He added that the fence would continue.
The source in Pakistan tells me the hope of Islamabad to achieve an understanding of continuing the construction of the temporary fence to make concessions that allow more across across across. But this will not overcome more problems in the Taliban opposition to the border. Maybe the group will not push it harder because of the dependence on Islamabad for economic and diplomatic assistance. But the will recently to criticize Pakistan on other issues shows it’s not a pushover.
Pakistan has a lot of at stake in a dispute. Tension with the Taliban can make it difficult for Islamabad’s efforts to curb in Pakistan Tearek-e-Taliban (TTP), a terrorist group based in Afghanistan which has boosted its production of attacks in Pakistan in recent months. Taliban-mediated talks caused a brief ceasefire in November 2021, but TTP refused to extend; Pakistan must now hope for new talks.
Alternatives – ask for the Taliban to drive TTP from Afghanistan – not possible. Taliban port old links for TTP, and every step of the punishment can worsen internal dividing. This leaf is the choice of Pakistan targeting TTP bases in Afghanistan, something that has been done in the past and may have been repeated in the past few days. Step like that military will not sit well with the Taliban.
