Why Afghanistan Remains Pakistan’s Border Enemy Despite Truce

Though now there is a semblance of truce between Afghanistan and Pakistan, everybody is perhaps certain that it will not last long and sooner than later, fighting will resume. This is because right from the birth of Pakistan on 14th August 1947, there has been a raging border dispute between these two Islamic countries in South Asia.

Last week there was a 48-hour ceasefire between them which now both accuse each other of violating. The officials of respective countries will meet in Doha to find a way forward. Pakistan is busy levelling familiar charges against Pakistan, one of them is accusing Afghanistan of being ‘a proxy of India’. The crux of this charge is that New Delhi and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan [TTP] are in cahoots with each other. Pakistan has not taken kindly to the visit of Taliban foreign minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi to India. On Friday, 17th October Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif angrily commented that Afghanistan has turned against Pakistan and aligned itself with India...the rulers of Kabul are now sitting in India’s lap’. This was a clear reference to Muttaqi’s India visit.

It should be recalled that but for brief periods of 1947, the relationship between Pakistan-Afghanistan was always marked mutual distrust and hostility. Only two periods saw friendship between them. One was when thethen USSR occupied Afghanistan during December 1979-December 1989. And second was when US attacked Afghanistan and stayed there for nearly 20 years [2001-2021]. But for these two times, there is never love lost between them.

The enmity between them is rooted in modern history is South Asia. Both consider the 2640 km long Durand Line, drawn in the year 1893 as the bone of contention. Under compulsion of the British, the Amir of AfghanistanAbdul Khan was forced to accept this border. In reality itmeant division of his land and creating a new border between his country and British India. This also meant division of Pashtuns into British India and Afghanistan. This was inherited by Pakistan in 1947 with all its attendant woes.

Cut of December 1971 which witnessed the birth of Bangladesh, which was formerly East Pakistan. Back then Pakistan consisted of West Pakistan and East Pakistan. Though Jinnah in July 1947 demanded a corridor to connect West and East Pakistan, it was shot down and two wings of Pakistan were separated by nearly 1,600 kms. This was highly unusual for a modern nation-state born in the middle of 20th century. Jinnah convinced himself that he could easily sandwiched India between these two wings. This was upset in December 1971 when Bangladesh was born. For Pakistan, it was not only a loss of territory and ability to sandwich India, it also meant search for a new strategic depth, should India attacks truncated Pakistan with full force. Thus began new honeymoon between Pakistan and its neighbour Afghanistan.

Strategic Depth meant a friendly, puppet government in Kabul. This is why Pakistan took special efforts to create

Taliban in the mid-1990s. The Pakistan-trained Taliban did capture power in Afghanistan in 1996 and continue to rule Afghanistan till 2001. The Taliban was forced out

in October 2001 when US attacked Afghanistan. The Talibans are back in power from August 2021 as US handed them over the reign. Now Afghans do not need Pakistan’s handholding. No wonder Pakistan calls the Taliban leader ‘ungrateful’.

As usual the US President Donald Trump has jumped into this whirlpool and announced that this is an easy conflict to solve. He is yet to offer any solution. As a result his offer is neither here or there. Only silver lining is that the talks in Doha has resumed. And yet one must reckon with the ‘India angle’ to this issue. Pakistan of 21st century fears that it would be squeezed between two hostile countries-India and Afghanistan.

Islamabad wants to dictate Kabul’s foreign policy which no country would like. War-devastated Afghanistan badly needs assistance of all types which India has been providing for decades. This automatically creates cordial relations between India and Afghanistan much to the chagrin of Islamabad. Friendship with India and unresolved issue othe Durand Line, are permanent irritant between Kabul-Islamabad relationships. Out of the two, most intractable is the Durand Line. No government in Kabul never accepted this border created by Sir Mortimer Durand, the then foreign secretary of UK. Solution to this is not going to be easy one and hence the promise of durable on the Durand Line may prove elusive, Doha talks, no Doha talks.

(The author is a Mumbai-based retired professor of Political Science.)