During the regime of Taliban, Islamabad tried to make the over 2,000-kilometre Durand Line a permanent border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a former diplomat of Taliban reveals.
Mullah Abdul Salam Zaif who was ambassador of Taliban to Islamabad says the country tried three times to formalize the border but it repeatedly received a negative response.
According to Mullah Zaif, first time Pakistan urged Taliban to accept the border when Mullah Abdul Raziq appointed as the interior minister, second time the regime was forced during the visit of Pakistan’s interior minister Moinuddin Haider to Kabul who also travelled to Kandahar for the same purpose.
Mullah Zaif says the demand was made for the third time during the presidency of General Parwiz Musharaf.
The line was drawn in 1893 as a temporarily border between Afghanistan and the British India based on an agreement.
When India partitioned in 1947 and Pakistan created, the Durand Line became a border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The line gives some of Afghanistan’s land to Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces.
But the 1893 agreement which was for 100 years has been expired.
Pakistan which does not agree to return Afghanistan’s land even tried during the Presidency of Hamid Karzai to give the border a permanent status but it again received a negative response.
Most of the issues between the two countries are believed to be the result of this line.
Courtesy Khaama