Durand Line

The Durand Line is the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which stretches approximately 2,640 kilometers (1,610 miles). It was established after the 1893 Durand Line Treaty to serve as the limit of British influence. It is named after Mortimer Durand, the Foreign Secretary of colonial British India from 1884 to 1894. The treaty was a single-page agreement signed on November 12, 1893, by Durand and Amir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan for the demarcation of the boundary between Afghanistan and what was then colonial British India (now Pakistan).^[1] The resulting Durand Line border established the "Great Game" buffer zone between British and Russian interests in the region.^[2] The Line cuts through the Pashtun tribal areas and lies in one of the most dangerous places in the world, especially for foreigners or outsiders.

History

Amir Abdur Rahman Khan

The area in which the border runs has been inhabited by ethnic Pashtun tribes since at least the time of Alexander the Great in 330 BC.^[3][4] The Greek historian Herodotus mentioned a people called Pactyans living on the eastern frontier of Arachosia as early as the 1st millennium BC.^[5] The Baloch tribes inhabit the southern end of the line, which runs in the Balochistan region that separates the ethnic Baloch people. Arab Muslims conquered the area in the 7th century and introduced Islam to the Pashtuns (known then as ethnic Afghans). Some of the early Arabs also settled among the Pashtuns in the Sulaiman Mountains.^[6] The Pashtun area (known today as "Pashtunistan") became part of the Ghaznavid Empire in the 10th century followed by the Ghurids, Timurids, Mughals and Durranis.^{[citation needed]}

In 1839, during the First Anglo-Afghan War, British-Indian forces reached deep into the Pashtun area and began war with the Afghan rulers. Two years later, in 1842, a large number of British-Indian forces were massacred and the war ended. The British again invaded Afghanistan in 1878, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, but withdrew after a couple of years later. Mortimer Durand was deputed to Kabul in 1893 by the government of British India for the purpose of obtaining an agreement from Amir Abdur Rahman Khan to mark the boundary between Afghanistan and British India. Abdur Rahman Khan showed his usual ability in diplomatic argument, his tenacity where his own views or claims were in debate, with a sure underlying insight into the real situation.^{[citation needed]}

On November 12, 1893, Abdur Rahman Khan and Mortimer Durand agreed to mark the boundary between Afghanistan and British India.^[1] The two parties secretly camped at Parachinar (now part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan), which is a small town near Khost in Afghanistan, for delimiting the boundary.^{[citation needed]} There was no national consensus made in Afghanistan, majority of the population were unaware that their land was planned to be split in half. The resulting Durand Line Treaty would ensure the carving out of a new province called North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) out of annexed areas from Afghanistan, which are currently part of Pakistan and includes FATA and Frontier Regions. It also included the areas of Multan, Mianwali, the Bahawalpur, and Dera Ghazi Khan. These areas were joined with the Punjab Province of Pakistan as late as 1970, after one unit of Pakistan was dissolved by a former Pakistani President, General Yahya Khan.

From the British side, the camp was attended by Mortimer Durand and Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum, Political Agent Khyber Agency representing the British Viceroy and Governor General.^{[citation needed]} The Afghan side was represented by Sahibzada Abdul Latif and a former governor of Khost province in Afghanistan, Sardar Shireendil Khan, representing Amir Abdur Rahman Khan.^{[citation needed]}

The 1893 Durand Line Treaty was only written in English, as were the 1894-1896 long and detailed demarcation surveys performed jointly by British and Afghan officials. These documents resulted in the line as shown today which, excluding the desert portion southwest of 66 degrees 15 minutes east longitude, follows clear physical features (rivers or watershed divides) for 84% of its length as seen on readily available modern imagery. Readily available, detailed (1:50,000 scale) Soviet maps of the 1980s clearly depict the hundreds of boundary pillar locations and the precise route of the remaining 16% straight line segments as described in the 1894-96 demarcation reports and subsequent, early 20th century Survey of India mapping.

Territorial dispute between Kabul and Islamabad

Afghanistan before the Durand agreement of 1893

The Durand Line's existence remains a focal point for Afghan-Pakistani governmental disputes. ^[1] Pakistan inherited the 1893 Durand Line Treaty after its partition from India in 1947 despite there being no actual formal agreement between Islamabad and Kabul.^[2] It's reported that the two countries had agreed to sign a formal agreement in 1977, which would might have partly ameliorated this contentious issue.^[2] Afghanistan's loya jirga or "national debate" of 1949 declared the Durand Line invalid as they saw it. This had no tangible effect as there has never been a move to enforce such a declaration due to long periods of constant wars by nations with other neighbours. Additionally, world courts have universally upheld via uti possidetis juris that binding bilateral agreements with or between colonial powers are "passed down" to successor independent states, as is the case with most of Africa. Thus, a unilateral declaration by one party has no effect; boundary changes must be made bilaterally.....as noted in any number of International Court of Justice rulings.

Many in Afghanistan as well as some Pakistani politicians find the existence of the international boundary splitting ethnic Pashtun areas to be at least objectionable if not abhorrent.^[7] Some non-official sources falsely claim that the 1893 treaty expired in 1993, after 100 years had elapsed.^[2] However, neither the relatively short Durand treaty document itself nor the much longer joint legal boundary demarcation agreements that followed in 1894-6 make any mention of a time limit. In 2005, spokespersons of US Department of State's Office of the Geographer and Global Issues and British Foreign and Commonwealth Office also pointed out that the treaty documents have no mention of expiration date, and, that under international law, international boundary line agreements do not expire. ^[8]

Because the Durand Line divides the Pashtun, it allegedly often serves as a source of tension between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Press statements from 2005 to 2007 by the former president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, calling for the building of a fence on the Durand Line have been met with resistance from numerous political parties within both countries.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]} A majority of Pashtun politicians in both countries strenuously object to even the existence of the Durand Line border.^[7] Movement of people crossing the border has always been largely unchecked or uncontrolled by the governments; legal crossing is allowed at only limited checkpoints.

Over the past decade Pakistan's military had established bases up to one or two kilometers into Afghanistan in the Yaqubi area, opposite Pakistan's Mohmand Agency,^[18] and a few hundred meters inside Afghanistan near the border-straddling bazaar of Angoor Ada in South Waziristan.^{[19] [20]} Shkin, Afghanistan, 7 km west of Angoor Ada, is a key location for these frequent skirmishes. This heavily fortified military base has housed mostly American special operations forces here since 2002.^[21][22] Since 2009 the military of the United States and NATO's ISAF forces have begun to use MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles from the Afghan side to hit targets on the Pakistan side of the Durand Line. Much of the Durand Line is considered to be one of the most dangerous places in the world, especially for western foreigners or outsiders.

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Durand Line Agreement

• Radcliffe Line
• Separatist movements of Pakistan

References

External links

• Khyber.org - Text of the Durand Line Agreement, November 12, 1893
• Fly-over of part of the Durand Line
• Culture, Politics Hinder U.S. Effort to Bolster Pakistani Border Washington Post March 30, 2008
• Border Complicates War in Afghanistan Washington Post April 4, 2008