The Durand Line jinx. The clash on Monday at a border checkpost between Pakistan and Afghanistan took place at the site of a previous incident, but in the background was the perennial dispute between the two countries over their border, as well as the incidents of firing which the two countries accuse each other of. Despite Pakistan's reiteration time and again, that it holds Afganistan to be a brotherly country, despite the fact that one of the largest migrant populations in the world is Afghans hosted on Pakistani soil. The Karzai regime being the one calling the shots, it must have at last permitted, if not actually instigated, the clash and false accusations against Pakistan. Combined with the Indian influence on the Karzai government, and the combination could not be more vitriolic. The Indian attack on Pakistan later may have as one of its motives support for Afghanistan. Durand line is a settled issue with Afghanistan: FO.
Neighbourhood watch : Karzai’s remarks fuel Pak-Afghan tensions. Afghan government accused the Pakistani military of setting up check posts on the Afghan side of the border. Afghan government accused the Pakistani military of setting up check posts on the Afghan side of the border. Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s recent verbal onslaught has sparked anti-Pakistan sentiments in Afghanistan. People took to the streets in Kabul and other major cities and burned the Pakistani flag over the Afghan government’s claim that Pakistani forces have constructed four check posts in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Kunar provinces in the east.
The allegation has been rejected by the Pakistani military and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On Thursday, Afghanistan’s state television quoted President Karzai advising the Pakistani government and military to “reform themselves.” “We make a distinction between their (Pakistan) nation and their government. Last week, Afghan authorities paraded the body of Mohammad Qasem, an Afghan border police official, in Jalalabad. Karzai: Afghanistan Never Recognised the Durand Line. US accepts Durand Line as formal Pak-Afghan border: Burns. By Sayed Jawad - Sun May 12 2013, 10:00 pm The United States of America on Sunday once again emphasized on the legal status of Durand Line as the border line between Afghanistan and Pakistan despite Afghan president Hamid Karzai insisted that the government of Afghanistan will never accept the legal status of Durand Line. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns on Sunday told reports in capital Kabul that Washington’s stance on this issue remains unchanged, and is similar to Marc Grossman’s remarks on the legal status of Durand Line.
Former US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, March Grossman earlier insisted that Washington recognize Durand Line as the formal boder between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which was later confirmed by US ambassador to Afghanistan during his visit to southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan. The remarks by US officials were widely criticized by the government of Afghanistan. US Position Hasn't Changed On Durand Line. SAMI MAHDI / MARC GROSSMAN - DURAND LINE. Durand Line Not Discussed in London: Faizi – The Daily Afghanistan Express. KABUL – The issue of the Durand Line had not be discussed between President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari when they met in London last week, a presidential spokesman said on Sunday. In London, Karzai held a series of meetings with Zardari at the trilateral talks hosted by the UK premier David Cameron.
The two presidents agreed on various issues, including jointly working to reach a peace deal with the Taliban over the next six months. To a question, Karzai’s chief spokesman Aimal Faizi told reporters in Kabul on Sunday that the Durand Line, the 2,640 kilometers long porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, did not come under discussion at the UK summit. He rejected as unfounded some media reports that claimed the Afghan government had agreed to recognising the Durand Line as an international border. “Public opinion in Afghanistan goes against any such deal with Pakistan. Durand Line. Pakistan opposes prolonged US presence in Afghanistan. Officials say US will not be allowed to use supply routes after 2014. Drivers chat atop a fuel tanker truck, used to transport fuel to Nato forces in Afghanistan, parked along a road in Karachi on Tuesday.
PHOTO: AFP Pakistan has agreed to reopen Nato supply routes, but has turned down United States’ request to extend the facility beyond the 2014 deadline earlier set for withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan. Senior diplomats and defence officials told The Express Tribune that Americans would like to continue using the land routes and want to establish permanent bases in Afghanistan. They claim that Washington intends to establish at least three permanent bases, one each in Bagram (close to the capital city of Kabul), Kandahar and Herat, to stay in the country till 2024.
According to recent reports, the United States’ counter-terrorism campaign includes drone strikes around the Durand Line for the next 10 years. China, Iran and Russia are also not happy with this idea. Retracing Nato routes: Politics of access in the Pak-Afghan region. The current security predicament faced by the Af-Pak region has much to do with its history. The current security predicament faced by the Af-Pak region has much to do with its history. PHOTO: AFP/FILE The year 2011 hasn’t been the only time in history when the politics of routes and access shaped international relations in this region.
While Nato supply routes for troops in Afghanistan have finally been reopened, the current security predicament faced by the Af-Pak region has much to do with its history. It started in the late 1800s. Russia and Britain engaged in railways and road building activity on both sides of the country. The Durand Line, however, always remained a bitter pill which Afghanistan was forced to swallow by the British. Mistrust and blockades Following Britain’s departure from India, Afghans expected territories west of the Indus to automatically revert to them. As a result of these tensions, Pakistan blocked Afghan transit trade in 1950, 1955 and 1961. North Waziristan. North Waziristan (Urdu: شمالی وزیرستان Shomali Waziristan) is the northern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northeast Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering 11,585 square kilometres (4,473 sq mi).
Waziristan comprises the area west and south-west of Peshawar between the Kurram River (Tochi River) to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Miranshah is capital of North Waziristan. Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lies immediately to the east. The region became an independent tribal territory in 1893, remaining outside of the British empire and Afghanistan. Geography[edit] Map of North Waziristan agency The Tochi River flowing through the agency has formed the Tochi Pass, through which armies, people and cultures have moved in and out of this region.
There are five notable rivers: Tochi, Kaitu, Kurram, Khaisor, and Shaktue. Mining[edit] The following minerals have been found in the area: Climate[edit] Blood Line: Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Unspoken Border Dispute. No evidence yet that Kabul attacks were planned on Pakistan soil: US CJCS Dempsey. Panetta, Dempsey both hold Haqqani network responsible for attacks, but concede it is spread on both sides of border. Dempsey declined to comment on whether the attack was planned in Pakistan until the US had received evidence. PHOTO: AFP/FILE WASHINGTON: Following an 18-hour long attack on Afghan capital Kabul, the US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey declared that the US does not have any intelligence yet on whether the deadly weekend attack was planned in Pakistan. Addressing reporters at the Pentagon during a press conference with the Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on Monday, CJCS General Dempsey revealed that the 36 attackers who terrorised Kabul were linked to the infamous Haqqani networks, a group of battle hardened militants spread on both sides of the Durand line, were involved, but declined to comment on whether the attack was planned in Pakistan.
Columns / G Parthasarathy : The Pak gameplan in Afghanistan. A Pashtun-dominated, internationally-ostracised regime in Afghanistan, suits Pakistan, because it would be unable to resurrect Pashtun nationalism. April 11, 2012: Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pakistan's military strategists and ISI justified their efforts to install a radical Islamic Government in Kabul, saying it would provide “strategic depth” against India — Pakistan's armed forces would have additional territory available to them in the event of an Indian attack.
However, the reality turned out to be different once the ISI, with the acquiescence of the Clinton Administration, installed its protégé, “Ghilzai” Pashtun leader, Mullah Omar, in Kandahar, with a so-called Taliban “President”, Mullah Rabbani, in Kabul. Afghanistan soon became the hub of global terrorism, once Mullah Omar was installed in Kandahar. A sustained effort has been made by Pakistan to persuade the Pashtuns in Afghanistan that Pakistan alone is their well-wisher. ‘Neutrality can ensure peace in Afghanistan’ The Institute of Strategic Studies (ISSI) organised the third discussion under a new series called Islamabad Debate 2012 on April 19, 2012. The proposition of the debate was ‘Given the history of external competition for influence in Afghanistan, the only way to bring about a sustainable Afghan peace settlement is a regional/international agreement on guaranteeing its neutrality’.
The two speakers of the debate included Ambassador (r) Aziz Ahmed Khan who spoke in favour of the proposition, and Dr Simbal Khan, Director Afghanistan and Central Asia at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad (ISSI). Welcoming the distinguished speakers, Director General of Institute of Strategic Studies Ambassador (r) Ashraf Jehangir Qazi highlighted the importance of proposition and said that Afghanistan was a country that had been in perpetual turmoil, its people had grown up in warfare and therefore it aspires for peace and stability. Pakistan after the American withdrawal. After withdrawal, a Talibanised Afghanistan will survive only if Pakistan, fulfils its promise of becoming a khilafat. The writer is Director South Asian Media School, Lahore khaled.ahmed@tribune.com.pk Most observers are worried about Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US-Nato forces from there in 2013-2014.
It should be interesting to see what would happen to Pakistan once the Americans are gone. Islamabad’s Jinnah Institute in its briefing (July 25, 2011) spelled out Pakistan’s ‘objectives’ in relation to post-withdrawal Afghanistan. Will India get out of Afghanistan after the American withdrawal? The most likely post-withdrawal scenario is that there will be a civil war in Afghanistan.
Ahmed Rashid in his latest book Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of Pakistan and the West (Allen Lane 2012) discusses the Afghan Army: “US recruitment policy includes a strict ratio established in 2003 among all ethnic groups. The Taliban in Pakistan have been criminalised. PM should be cautious. Who is the real enemy in Afghanistan? So who is the real enemy? Coalition forces and NATO?
The taliban? Al Qaeda? The Haqqani network? President Karzai? In 11 years of warfare, Kabul has never seen a Taliban offensive such as this; government buildings, foreign embassies, NATO offices and bases were continuously attacked for two days by coordinated rocket and gun attacks around the country. Deeming the violence as a ‘spring offensive’, it is disheartening to see that 11 years of war and devastation have not had the result some may have hoped for, and also raises questions as to who the ‘real enemy’ is, and whether the ‘enemy’ can be pinpointed to being one group or individual.
It also raises the question as to how many different perspectives there are to the Afghanistan war saga and its history. Lastly, it puts into question whether or not the NATO transfer of power by 2014 will be as effective as previously hoped. When it comes to attacks within Afghanistan, usually the Taliban are blamed. So who is the real enemy? Al Qaeda? Columns / G Parthasarathy : Zardari's promise belies his limitations.
Despite the Army's domination, the Pakistan President has shown deft political skills. Pakistan President Asif Zardari…popular in India April 27, 2012: Just before he commenced his Yatra to India to combine diplomacy in Delhi with pilgrimage and prayer in Ajmer, President Asif Zardari had a long meeting in Lahore with the person who determines his country's foreign and security policies — General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. The worthy General, who never tires of telling his American friends about his “India-centric” view of the world, is no slouch when it comes to political intrigue and manoeuvring, to keep the elected Government on its toes. He has repeatedly sought to clip the wings of a President the army establishment loves to hate.
Kayani is quite appropriately called by sections of the Pakistani media as “canny”. Kayani responded by manipulating the media and raising anti-American sentiments across the country. The next elections could well produce a fractured verdict. The polio battle. April 29, 2012 Last year, the government aimed to control the outbreak of polio but despite all efforts, there is still a long way to go to make Pakistan polio-free.
However, reports of the presence of the polio virus in a water sample taken in Rawalpindi is a matter of serious concern. The twin cities had their last case of polio nearly three years ago, but the discovery led the National Institute of Health to begin investigating cases of paralysis which were reported from various parts of the country, including Islamabad. What causes even more concern is the fact that with the porous borders - Islamabad's close proximity to the northern regions - the continual movement of people has been one of the factors that has increased number of polio cases. The traditional, conservative culture hampers accessibility of immunisation to children in the remote areas.
The discovery of the polio virus in Islamabad is just the tipof the iceberg. Ambiguous, embittering and unstoppable: U.S. drones in Pakistan | Pakistan: Now or Never? One of the most frustrating aspects of the debate on drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas is that it rests on a tangle of assumptions on which neither Washington nor Islamabad can agree. The result is a corrosive discussion which undermines U.S. legitimacy and gives Pakistanis a focus for anti-Americanism which drowns out all other issues, including how militancy should be tackled and the Afghan war brought to an end. This week the United States and Pakistan again publicly contradicted each other on the use of drones. While top White House official John Brennan described drone attacks as legal, ethical and wise, Pakistan lodged a formal protest against the latest strike on its tribal areas while its foreign ministry condemned it as a “total contravention of international law”.
None of this will be resolved soon. There are no easy answers. The drone campaign, can however, at least be broken down into the three different but overlapping motivations. Kandahar intrigues and the Afghanistan conflict | Afghanistan conflict | Kandahar. US in denial: Watershed in Afghanistan. Crises collide in Afghanistan | World news. The US and The Afghan Train Wreck by Conn Hallinan. Afghanistan: Is Karzai Peace Plan a No-Go? - National Afghanistan Policy.
West must relearn lesson of Durand Line | Columnists | Opinion. Running scared of Pashtuns. When boots fail to deliver, Parliament must step in. From Chitral to Nuristan: Woman treks across border to find son. Afghan endgame has Pakistan shuddering. TAPI gas pipeline project challenges and barriers - KHAAMA PRESS | Afghan Online Newspaper. The Durand Line- Where Empires Collide « The Durandline. Afghanistan Chronicles, Part 6: Near Ground Zero and in Af-Pak Region, Two Labyrinths. Taliban are Pak Army proxies, not Pashtun nationalists – By Farhat Taj. Inside Khyber Agency – IV: The porous Durand Line is a smuggler’s paradise – Pakistan News, Today Breaking News Updates – Pakistan News Today. Our anti-Punjab mayhem — II —Aamir Riaz | Punjab Punch.
Do you think Afghanistan hasn’t changed since 1842? | Pakistan: Now or Never? The corrosion from within. US used 2005 quake to send JSOC spies into Pakistan. A bend in the road - Talat Farooq. Afghanistan: Too close for comfort. International : Pakistan, Afghan, ISAF coordination resumes. Michael Brenner: At Sea in Afghanistan. The Frontier Post. MAD or MADE? | China Power. Report: The Other Guy's Endgame - Part II by Wajahat S Khan. The December 2011 Bonn Conference: a farewell to Afghanistan?
Afghan “exit strategy” begins to unravel | Pakistan: Now or Never? Policy towards Afghanistan: Support dialogue, not dictation, politicians tell Pakistan. Durand line « Tom Stevenson. Death on the Durand Line. Shadowy Wars in Secret Pakistan:Blog on Broad Gauge by Rajiv Jayaram |ET Blogs. PUSHTU MOVEMENTS OVER DURAND LINE « CHUCKMAN'S WORDS ON WORDPRESS: COMMENTS FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS. Pakistan: A Geographical Battlefield. Solution to Kashmir Issue and Durand Line key to Peace in South Asia: HRH Faisal. Dawat Independent Media Center (DIMC) - In reaction to a report concerning the “Durand Line Recognition”
Various matters: endless war, military detention, the Fed. On the NATO/US Military Strike on Pakistan. Afghanistan Jirga Backs US Deal. Calvin Gibbs, Soldier, Found Guilty In Gruesome Afghanistan War Crimes Case. The Fine Line between Culture and Law in Afghanistan - by Javid Ahmad. Af-Pak designed to implode Pakistan. Pakistan: Reversing the Lens. Paper: Contradictory Crossings of an Uneven Divide: The Durand Line's Differential Impact on Kabul-Peshawar and Qandahar-Quetta Relations (126th Annual Meeting (January 5-8, 2012)) Durand Line | The Great Day of Annihilation. Durand line serves as a line of hate: Karzai. Mao's Rockets and the Eastern Afghan Border War, Part II. Questionable status as international border by G. Parthasarathy | Shadow Warrior. Pakistan and America: To the bitter end. 10 Years After The Taliban. Michael Hughes: When the Lion Roared: How Abdul Haq Almost Saved Afghanistan.
It’s a fantasy to think we are winning the war in Afghanistan. A law for crossing the Durand Line? One soldier, 15 militants killed in cross-border attack. Afghan insurgents are just mercenaries. Opinion / Op-Ed : Tightrope act on the Durand Line. Listen to the choir | peacefare.net. Drones: A New Chapter In Modern Warfare - Analysis.
PAKISTAN: Reluctant to return | Pakistan | Conflict | Migration. Columns / G Parthasarathy : Durand Line, and Pak's ‘imperial' ambitions. Afghanistan appeals for aid as drought looms. Lives Altered by 10 Years of War in Afghanistan. Farahnaz condemns target killing of Hazara people in Quetta | Pakistan News | Onepakistan.com. Police arrest 100 suspects in Quetta.