Rift deepens as Taliban destroys Pakistan border fence

TALIBAN fighters have destroyed sections of a disputed Pakistani border fence, provoking high-level diplomatic complaints from Islamabad to the new Afghan regime.

Pakistan is reported to have told Taliban leaders it is demonstrating “maximum restraint” after sections of the new 1,600-mile security fence were knocked down in recent weeks.

Unconfirmed videos have shown fighters tearing down sections of the fence along a border disputed by Afghanistan. Taliban fighters are also said to have captured building supplies to stop work along the fence.

Pakistan’s foreign minister appeared to confirm the incidents and said Imran Khan’s government was in touch with the Taliban’s newly restored Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said: “We learnt that such incidents occurred in the past few days and we have taken up the issue with the Afghan government at the diplomatic level.”

Afghanistan has long refused to accept the internationally recognised border between the two countries and the issue has frequently soured relations between the neighbours.

The frontier drawn up by Mortimer Durand, British colonial administrator, was notoriously porous until Pakistan began fencing it around five years ago and directing traffic through official crossings.

Pakistan’s generals have said the fence is necessary to keep out Pakistan’s own branch of Taliban militants who were pushed into Afghanistan following army offensives in the border regions.

Building work fed tensions with the former Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani and led to occasional border clashes between opposing troops. Analysts said Islamabad had hoped the new Afghan Taliban regime, which relied on safe havens inside Pakistan during its long insurgency, would be more accommodating, but the recent incidents may signal that the issue remains contentious.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s main spokesman, said in a recent interview that the border was “unresolved” and divided tribes that straddle the frontier, Dawn newspaper reported.

“The construction of fencing itself creates rifts between a nation spread across both sides of the border. It amounts to dividing a nation,” he said. “The Durand Line has divided one nation along both sides. We do not want it at all. We want a rational and logical solution to the problem,” the Taliban spokesman maintained.

Enayatullah Khwarizmi, the defence ministry spokesman, also said Pakistan had no right to fence the border.

Mr Qureshi tried to downplay any rift with Kabul, saying the issue was being exaggerated by “miscreants”.

He said: “We are looking into it and we are in contact with the Afghan government. Hopefully, we would be able to resolve the issue diplomatically.”