A few days before the Karzai visit, a large Pashtun convention in Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan, had called for the erasure of the British-created ‘imaginary’ Durand Line, which functions as the technical border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Speaking at the rally after an unanimous resolution called for the removal of the 2,640-kilometer-long Durand Line, Asfayandar Wali Khan, Chief of the Awami National Party (ANP), said that it was imperative to do away with the illusory line which, the Pashtun supremo declared, had artificially separated the Pashtu-speaking people for over a century.

The Durand Line designates the shoddily marked 2,640-kilometer-long border between the two countries. After being defeated in two wars against the Afghans, the British, in line with their famed ‘divide-and-rule’ policy, succeeded in 1893 in imposing the Durand Line between what was then British India (now the NWFP and Balochistan of Pakistan) and a truncated Afghanistan. Named after Sir Mortimer Durand, the then Foreign Secretary of the British Indian Government, the border, arguably, was erected to divide the Pashtun tribes whom the colonial empire considered formidable adversaries. The treaty, strongly opposed by the then Afghan Amir (chief) Abdur Rahman Shah, was to be in force for a 100-year period.

Citing the example of the Berlin Wall, Asfayandar Wali Khan now advocates a separate state for the Pashtuns, obliterating the Durand Line. “It's a line whose time has ended”, Asfayandar who is the grandson of Khan Abdul Gafar Khan, revered as the ‘Frontier Gandhi’ in this part of the world, proclaimed. The ANP, which, just days before the convention, had merged with the Pakhtoonkhawa Qaumi Party, is widely believed to be articulating a position that finds favour with a majority of Pashtuns living on either side of the border. At the Pashtun convention, sources indicate, many from the various Pashtu tribes. endorsed the view for the creation of a separate Pashtun state. The average Pashtun has, for long, hoped that the Durand Line will be erased to enable Pakhtoons living in the NWFP, parts of North Balochistan and in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan to form a state of their own. Incidentally, within Pakistan, the NWFP, Balochistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are currently witnessing extensive unrest and anti-state violence.

Pakistani insecurities on the Afghan front are directly related to the contested nature of the Durand Line. Most Afghans (and Pashtuns) believe that the Durand Line should rightly have been drawn much further South, at Attock, and this is what the Afghans will inevitably press for when their country is strong enough. Within this context, it is useful to note that, south of the Durand Line, in what are currently the Pakistani NWFP and FATA, land records, police, legal and administrative records still refer to the people as 'Afghan'.

The Taliban, as has been documented extensively, exists on both sides of the border. While they have obviously been weakened, they retain substantial subversive capacities. With Islamabad’s strategy to quieten the chaotic Waziristan region along the Afghan border having failed, the mountainous terrain along the Durand Line provides a secure pathway and safe hideout for the Taliban and Al Qaeda. On February 17, Afghan television channel Tolo broadcast video recordings of men beheaded in Pakistan because they opposed the presence of Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists there. The macabre images showed the heads of three men being held up in front of a crowd, which chanted "Long live Osama bin Laden" and "Long live Mullah Omar." "The footage... shows half a dozen dead bodies being dragged by a vehicle through the streets of Mandrakhel [in Waziristan] – while a uniformed Pakistani military officer drives past without interfering," Tolo stated.

Afghan officials have consistently asserted that Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives are coming in from Pakistan, where they are reportedly based in areas of the NWFP, FATA, and also from Balochistan. Afghanistan has given Pakistan detailed information about members of the Taliban who, Kabul says, are orchestrating an insurgency from Pakistani soil. On February 18, President Hamid Karzai told a News Conference at Kabul, "We gave our brothers a lot of information, very detailed information about individuals, locations and other issues", referring to the intelligence handed over to the Pakistani authorities. Karzai, according to noted Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, handed over extensive intelligence dossiers to Musharraf, containing details of how suicide bombers who attack targets in Afghanistan are being recruited, trained and equipped in Pakistan. The dossiers reportedly include the names and addresses of Pakistani recruiters, trainers and suppliers. “In places like Karachi, Pakistani extremist groups working on behalf of the Taliban for a fee carry out the recruitment and then bring them to safe houses in Balochistan for training and equipping with the (suicide) vests,” said a senior Afghan official who accompanied Karzai. The official said that all top Taliban ‘commanders’, including Mullah Mohammed Omar, are known to be living in Pakistan and the issue had been repeatedly raised with Pakistan.

Taliban have regrouped rather well along the Afghan countryside, particularly in provinces along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Unsurprisingly, violence is significant near the Pakistan border. The subversion that targets Afghan provinces close to Pakistan, like Paktika, is a reality despite the fact that Islamabad has deployed approximately 80,000 troops on their side of the border. The burden of evidence suggests that the Taliban/Al Qaeda have in fact been provided space by the military to operate in the Pakistani areas along the border. Notably, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an Islamist alliance with close links to the Taliban, governs Balochistan and the NWFP.

The security establishment in Afghanistan, including coalition intelligence sources, has indicated a disturbing shift in terrorist tactics, with the Jihadis increasingly adopting 'Iraq-style' suicide attacks. At least 30 suicide bomb attacks have killed nearly 100 people since November 2005, most of them claimed by the Taliban. There are 200 to 250 Fidayeen (suicide squad members) ready to go into action, Mohammad Hanif, a Taliban spokesperson, disclosed to Western journalist Scott Baldouf. And the more recent violence in Afghanistan indicates a widening geographical expanse of subversion, with the Taliban and Al Qaeda orchestrating attacks beyond the Taliban's traditional stronghold in Kandahar and Uruzgan. For instance, thus far in 2006, terrorist violence has been reported from Helmand, Herat, Konar and Nangarhar provinces, in addition to an escalation of fighting along both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The U.S.-led coalition suffered at least 99 fatalities in 2005, the highest toll since 2001, and overall terrorist violence in Afghanistan during 2005 claimed at least 1,500 lives.

Assisting the Pakistani and Taliban strategy is the regrettable reality that the Karzai regime has little control over southern and eastern Afghanistan. The end-game that Islamabad seeks to achieve, while reframing its quest for 'strategic depth', is to prevent the Kabul regime from stabilizing without a pre-dominant Pakistani role. Anything contrary to this would mean an increase in the dissent on the Durand Line, and a further destabilization of North Balochistan, the NWFP and FATA.

The writer is Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management; Assistant Editor, Faultlines: Writings on Conflict & Resolution.

Courtesy : South Asia Terrorism Portal

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