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Durand Line

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The red line between Afghanistan and Pakistan is called the Durand Line, named after British Foreign Secretary Mortimer Durand in 1893.

The Durand Line (Template:Lang-ps) refers to the porous international border[1] between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has divided the ethnic Pashtuns (Afghans). This poorly marked line is approximately 2,640 kilometers (1,640 mi) long. It was established after the 1893 Durand Line Agreement between a representative of colonial British India and Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan for fixing the limit of their respective spheres of influence. It is named after Henry Mortimer Durand, the Foreign Secretary of British India at the time. The single-page agreement which contains seven short articles was signed by H. M. Durand and Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, agreeing not to exercise interference beyond the frontier line between Afghanistan and what was then colonial British India (now Pakistan).[2]

A joint British-Afghan demarcation survey took place starting from 1894, covering some 800 miles of the border.[3][4] The resulting Durand Line established the "Great Game" buffer zone between British and Russian interests in the region.[5] This poorly marked border cuts through the Pashtun tribal areas, dividing ethnic Pashtuns ((Afghans)) on both sides of the border and lies in what has been described as one of the most dangerous places in the world.[6][7][8] Although shown on most maps as the western international border of Pakistan, it is unrecognized by Afghanistan.[9][10][11][12][13]

Ancient to modern era

Arachosia and the Pactyans during the 1st millennium BC

The area in which the Durand Line lies has been inhabited by the indigenous Pakhtuns[14] since ancient time, at least since 500 B.C. The Greek historian Herodotus mentioned a people called Pactyans living in and around Arachosia as early as the 1st millennium BC.[15] The Baloch tribes inhabit the southern end of the line, which runs in the Balochistan region that separates the ethnic Baloch people. They are believed to be mentioned by name in Arabic chronicles as early as the 10th century.[16] 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.[17] The Pashtun area (known as the "Pashtunistan" region) became part of the Ghaznavid Empire in the 10th century followed by the Ghurids, Timurids, Mughals, and finally by the Durranis.[18]

Abdur Rahman Khan, Amir of Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901.

In 1839, during the First Anglo-Afghan War, British-Indian forces ventured deep into the Pashtun area and began war with the Afghan rulers. Two years later, in 1842, the British were totally defeated and the war ended. The British again invaded Afghanistan in 1878, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, but withdrew 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 a line between Afghanistan and British India.

On November 12, 1893, Abdur Rahman Khan and Mortimer Durand agreed to go ahead with marking the line between Afghanistan and British India.[2] It is said that the two parties later 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 frontier.[citation needed] There was no national consensus made in Afghanistan, and a majority of the population were unaware that their native land was planned to be split in half permanently. The resulting Durand Line Agreement or 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 the FATA and Frontier Regions. It also included the areas of Multan, Mianwali, the Bahawalpur, and Dera Ghazi Khan. These areas were part of the Afghan Empire from 1747 until around 1820s when the Sikh followed by British invaded and took possession.[19] They were annexed with the Punjab Province of Pakistan as late as 1970, after one the unit of Pakistan was dissolved by President Yahya Khan, resulting in a shrunken NWFP (now called Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

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 original 1893 Durand Line Agreement was written in English, with translated copies in Dari or Pashto language. It is believed however that only the English version was actually signed by Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, a language which he could not read or understand.[11]

Demarcation surveys on the Durand Line

Afghanistan before the 1893 Durand Line Agreement

The initial and primary demarcation, a joint Afghan-British survey and mapping effort, covered 800 miles and took place from 1894 to 1896. "The total length of the boundary which had been delimitated and demarcated between March 1894 and May 1896, amounted to 800 miles." Detailed topographic maps locating hundreds of boundary demarcation pillars were soon published and are available in the Survey of India collection at the British Library.[20] The complete 20-page text of these detailed joint Afghan-British demarcation surveys is available in several sources, which point out that "J. Donald and Sardar Shireendil Khan settled the boundary from Sikaram Peak (34-03 north, 69-57 east) to Laram Peak (33-13 north, 70-05 east) in a document dated 21 November 1894. This section was marked by 76 pillars. The boundary from Laram Peak to.....Khwaja Khidr (32-34 north)....was surveyed and marked by H.A. Anderson in concert with various Afghan chiefs....marked by (39) pillars which are described in a report dated 15 April 1895. L.W. King (issued a report dated) 8 March 1895 (on) the demarcation of the section from Khwaja Khidr to Domandi (31-55 north) by 31 pillars. The line from Domandi to New Chaman (30-55 north, 66-22 east) was marked by 92 pillars by a joint demarcation commission led by Henry McMahon and Sardar Gul Muhammad Khan (who issued a) report dated 26 February 1895. McMahon also led the demarcation commission with Muhammad Umar Khan which marked the boundary from new Chaman to....the tri-junction with Iran....by 94 pillars which are described in a report dated 13 May 1896."[21][22] In 1896, the long stretch from the Kabul River to China, including the Wakhan Corridor, was declared demarcated by virtue of its continuous, distinct watershed ridgeline, leaving only the section near the Khyber Pass which was finally demarcated in the treaty of 22 November 1921 signed by Mahmud Tarzi, "Chief of the Afghan Government for the conclusion of the treaty" and "Henry R. C. Dobbs, Envoy Extraordinary and Chief of the British Mission to Kabul."[21] A very short adjustment to the demarcation was made at Arandu (Arnawai) in 1933-34.[21][4]

British India declares war on Afghanistan

Abdul Ghaffar Khan (leader of Khudai Khidmatgar) and Mohandas Gandhi during the British Raj

The Durand Line triggered a long-running controversy between the governments of Afghanistan and British India,[2] especially after the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Afghan War when Afghanistan's capital (Kabul) and its eastern city of Jalalabad were air raided by the No. 31 and 114 squadrons of the British Royal Air Force in May 1919.[23][24] Nevertheless, Afghan rulers reaffirmed in the 1919, 1921, and 1930 treaties to accept the Indo-Afghan frontier.[11][21][25]

The Afghan Government accepts the Indo–Afghan frontier accepted by the late Amir

— Article V of the August 8, 1919 Treaty of Rawalpindi

The two high contracting parties mutually accept the Indo-Afghan frontier as accepted by the Afghan Government under Article V of the Treaty concluded on August 8, 1919

— Article II of the November 22, 1921 finalising of the Treaty of Rawalpindi

Territorial dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan

Pakistan inherited the 1893 Durand Line Agreement after its partition from the British Raj in 1947 but there has never been a formal agreement or ratification between Islamabad and Kabul.[5] Pakistan believes that under uti possidetis juris it should not require one[11] because courts in several countries around the world and the Vienna Convention have universally upheld via uti possidetis juris that binding bilateral agreements are "passed down" to successor states[26] Thus, a unilateral declaration by one party has no effect; boundary changes must be made bilaterally.[27] At the time of independence, the indigenous Pashtun people[14] (including members of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement) living on the border with Afghanistan were given only the choice of becoming a part either of India or Pakistan.[6] Recent legal debate on the Durand Line issue has focused on the original nature of the contract between Afghanistan and British India. Some scholars have suggested that the Durand Line was never intended to be a boundary demarcating sovereignty, but rather a line of control beyond which either side agreed not to interfere unless there were an expedient need to do so. Memoranda from British officials at the time of the Durand Agreement incline towards this view. Scholars suggest that the frontier agreement was not of the form of an "executed clause" which usually caters for sovereign boundary demarcation and which cannot be unilaterally repudiated. Rather, they conjecture that it is of the form of an "executory clause" similar to those which pertain to trade agreements, which are ongoing and can be repudiated by either party at any time. This is, however, a matter of ongoing debate. Other legal questions currently being considered are those of state practice, i.e. whether the relevant states de facto treat the frontier as an international boundary, and whether the de jure independence of the Tribal Territories at the moment of Indian Independence undermine the validity of Durand Agreement and subsequent treaties.[28][29]

On July 26, 1949, when Afghan–Pakistan relations were rapidly deteriorating, a loya jirga was held in Afghanistan after a military aircraft from the Pakistan Air Force bombed a village on the Afghan side of the Durand Line. As a result of this violation, the Afghan government declared that it recognized "neither the imaginary Durand nor any similar line" and that all previous Durand Line agreements were void.[30] They also announced that the Durand ethnic division line had been imposed on them under coercion/duress and was a diktat. This had no tangible effect as there has never been a move in the United Nations to enforce such a declaration due to both nations being constantly busy in wars with their other neighbors (See Indo-Pakistani wars and Civil war in Afghanistan). In 1950 the House of Commons of the United Kingdom held its view on the Afghan-Pakistan dispute over the Durand Line by stating:

His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom has seen with regret the disagreements between the Governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan about the status of the territories on the North West Frontier. It is His Majesty's Government's view that Pakistan is in international law the inheritor of the rights and duties of the old Government of India and of his Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom in these territories and that the Durand Line is the international frontier.[31]

— Philip Noel-Baker, June 30, 1950

At the 1956 SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) Ministerial Council Meeting held at Karachi, capital of Pakistan at the time, it was stated:

The members of the Council declared that their governments recognized that the sovereignty of Pakistan extends up to the Durand Line, the international boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and it was consequently affirmed that the Treaty area referred to in Articles IV and VIII of the Treaty includes the area up to that Line.[32]

— SEATO, March 8, 1956

Pakistan withdrew from SEATO on November 7, 1973, and the organization was finally dissolved in June 1977.

Contemporary era

Pakistani involvement in Afghan wars

CIA-funded and ISI-trained mujahideen fighters from Pakistan crossing the Durand Line border to fight the Soviet forces and the Afghan government in 1985.
Durand Line border between Afghanistan and Pakistan (in red). The blue area represents the predominant Pashtun and Baloch area.

Pakistan's largest intelligence agency (the ISI), which began with the birth of the nation, has been heavily involved in the affairs of Afghanistan since the late 1970s. During Operation Cyclone, the ISI with full support/funding from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the White House in the United States recruited huge numbers of mujahideen militant groups on the Pakistani side of the Durand line to cross into Afghanistan's territory for missions to destroy the Soviet-backed Afghan government.[33] After the collapse of the pro-Soviet Afghan government in 1992, Pakistan being well aware of its Durand Line Agreement violation (specifically article 2 where it mentions "The Government of India (Pakistan) will at no time exercise interference in the territories lying beyond this line on the side of Afghanistan") created a puppet state in Afghanistan run by the Taliban.[34] According to a summer 2001 report in The Friday Times, even the Taliban leaders challenged the very existence of the Durand Line when former Afghan Interior Minister Abdur Razzaq and a delegate of about 95 Taliban visited Pakistan.[35] The Taliban refused to endorse the Durand Line despite pressure from Islamabad, arguing that there shall be no borders among Muslims. When the Taliban government was removed in late 2001, the new Afghan President Hamid Karzai also began resisting the Durand Line.[36]

"A line of hatred that raised a wall between the two brothers."

— Hamid Karzai

Afghan Geodesy and Cartography Head Office (AGCHO) depicts the line on their maps as a de facto border, including naming the "Durand Line 2310 km (1893)" as an "International Boundary Line" on their home page.[37] However, a map in an article from the "General Secretary of The Government of Balochistan in Exile" extends the border of Afghanistan to the Indus River.[11] The Pashtun dominated Government of Afghanistan not only refuses to recognize the Durand Line as the international border between the two countries, it claims that the Pashtun territories of Pakistan rightly belong to Afghanistan.[10] Durand Line not a legitimate border: Zoori], August 3, 2009.</ref> Some argue that the 1893 treaty expired in 1993, after 100 years elapsed, and should be treated similar to the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory.[11][12][13][35][38] However, neither the relatively short Durand Line Agreement itself nor the much longer joint boundary demarcation documents that followed in 1894-6 make any mention of a time limit suggesting the treaty should be treated similar to the Curzon Line andMexican Cession. In 2004, spokespersons of U.S. State Department's Office of the Geographer and Global Issues and British Foreign and Commonwealth Office also pointed out that the Durand Line Agreement has no mention of an expiration date.

Recurrent claims that (the) Durand Treaty expired in 1993 are unfounded. Cartographic depictions of boundary conflict with each other, but Treaty depictions are clear.[5]

— A spokesperson for U.S. State Department's Office of the Geographer and Global Issues
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf with Fakhruddin Ahmed, Chief Adviser (Prime Minister) of Bangladesh.

Because the Durand Line divides the Pashtun and Baloch people, it continues to be a source of tension between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan.[39] In August 2007, Pakistani politician and the leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Fazal-ur-Rehman, urged Afghanistan to recognise the Durand Line.[9] Press statements from 2005 to 2007 by former Pakistani President Musharraf calling for the building of a fence on the Durand Line have been met with resistance from numerous political parties within both countries.[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] Pashtun politicians in both countries strenuously object to even the existence of the Durand Line border.[49] In 2006 Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned that "Iran and Pakistan and others are not fooling anyone."

"If they don’t stop, the consequences will be ... that the region will suffer with us equally. In the past we have suffered alone; this time everybody will suffer with us.... Any effort to divide Afghanistan ethnically or weaken it will create the same thing in the neighboring countries. All the countries in the neighborhood have the same ethnic groups that we have, so they should know that it is a different ball game this time."[10]

— Hamid Karzai, February 17, 2006

Recent border conflicts

In July 2003, Pakistani and Afghani militia clashed over border posts. The Afghan government claimed that Pakistani military established bases up to 600 meters inside Afghanistan in the Yaqubi area near bordering Mohmand Agency.[50] The Yaqubi and Yaqubi Kandao (Pass) area were later found to fall within Afghanistan.[51] In 2007, Pakistan erected fences and posts a few hundred meters inside Afghanistan, near the border-straddling bazaar of Angoor Ada in South Waziristan, but the Afghan National Army quickly removed them and began shelling Pakistani positions.[50] Leaders in Pakistan said the fencing was a way to prevent Taliban militants from crossing over between the two nations but Afghan President Hamid Karzai believed that it an Islamabad plan to separate the Pashtun tribes.[52] Forces from the United States Army have been based at Shkin, Afghanistan, seven kilometers west of Angoor Ada, since 2002.[53] In 2009, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and American CIA have begun using unmanned aerial vehicles from the Afghan side to hit terrorist targets on the Pakistani side of the Durand Line.[54]

An MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle, which are launched from Afghanistan to kill terrorists on the Pakistani side of the Durand Line.

The border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan has long been one of the most dangerous places in the world, due largely to very little government control. It is legal and common in the region to carry guns, and assault rifles and explosives are common.[55] Many forms of illegal activities take place such as smuggling of weapons, narcotics, lumber, copper, gemstones, marble, vehicles, electronic products, as well as ordinary consumer goods.[39][56][57][58][59] Kidnappings and murders are frequent.[8] Numerous outsiders with extremist views came from around the Muslim world to settle in the Durand Line region over the past 30 years. The governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan are both trying to extend the rule of law into the border areas. At the same time, the United States is reviewing the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZ) Act in Washington, D.C., which is supposed to help the economic status of the Pashtun and Baloch tribes by providing jobs to a large number of the population on both sides of the Durand Line border.[60]

Pakistan's Frontier Corps and the Afghan Border Police at the Durand Line's Friendship Gate, seven km southeast of Spin Boldak, Afghanistan.

Much of the northern and central Durand line is quite mountainous, where crossing the border is often only practical in the numerous passes through the mountains. Border crossings are very common, especially among Pashtuns who cross the border to meet relatives or to work. The movement of people crossing the border has largely been unchecked or uncontrolled,[39] although passports and visas are at times checked at official crossings. In June 2011 the United States installed a biometric system at the border crossing near Spin Boldak aimed at improving the security situation and blocking the infiltration of insurgents into southern Afghanistan.[61]

Between June and July 2011, the Pakistani military reportedly shelled some Afghan villages in Afghanistan's Nuristan, Kunar, Nangarhar, and Khost provinces resulting in a number of Afghan civilians being killed.[62] Afghan sources claimed that nearly 800 rounds of missiles were fired from Pakistan which hit civilian targets inside Afghanistan.[63] The reports claimed that attacks by Pakistan resulted in the deaths of 42 Afghan civilians, including children, wounded many others and destroyed 120 homes. Although Pakistan claims it was an accident, analysts believe that it could have been a show of strength by Islamabad. For example, a senior official at the Council on Foreign Relations explained that because the shelling was of large scale it is more likely to be a warning from Pakistan than an accident.[1]

"I'm speculating, but natural possibilities include a signal to Karzai and to (the United States) that we can't push Pakistan too hard."[1]

The Durand Line ethnic division question has not yet formally reached the United Nations, which could play a major role in settling the disputes between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The United States and other NATO states often ignore this sensitive issue, likely because of potential effects on their war strategy in Afghanistan. Their involvement could strain relations and jeopardise their own national interests in the area.[10]

See also

References and notes

  1. ^ a b c Nichols, Michelle (July 7, 2011). "Afghanistan, Pakistan to coordinate amid cross-border confusion". United States: Reuters. Retrieved 2011-07-09.
  2. ^ a b c Smith, Cynthia (August 2004). "A Selection of Historical Maps of Afghanistan - The Durand Line". United States: Library of Congress. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
  3. ^ "The total length of the boundary which had been delimitated and demarcated between March 1894 and May 1896, amounted to 800 miles." The long stretch from the Kabul River to China, including the Wakhan Corridor, was declared demarcated by virtue of its continuous, distinct watershed ridgeline, leaving only the section near the Khyber Pass which was finally demarcated in 1921: BRIG.-GEN. Sir Percy Sykes, K.C.I.E., C.B., C.M.G., GOLD MEDALIST OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. "A HISTORY OF AFGHANISTAN VOL. II". MACMILLAN & CO. LTD, 1940, LONDON. pp. 182–188, 200–208. Retrieved 2009-12-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ a b An adjustment to the demarcation was made at Arandu in the early 1930's: Hay, Maj. W. R. (1933). "Demarcation of the Indo-Afghan Boundary in the Vicinity of Arandu". Geographic Journal. LXXXII (4). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  5. ^ a b c Hasan, Khalid (February 1, 2004). "'Durand Line Treaty has not lapsed'". Pakistan: Daily Times. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
  6. ^ a b "No Man's Land". United States: Newsweek. February 1, 2004. Retrieved 2011-02-11. Where the imperialists' Great Game once unfolded, tribal allegiances have made for a "soft border" between Afghanistan and Pakistan--and a safe haven for smugglers, militants and terrorists
  7. ^ Bajoria, Jayshree (March 20, 2009). "The Troubled Afghan-Pakistani Border". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
  8. ^ a b "Japanese nationals not killed in Pakistan: FO". Pakistan: Dawn News. September 7, 2005. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
  9. ^ a b Dawn News, Fazl urges Afghanistan to recognise Durand Line
  10. ^ a b c d Grare, Frédéric (October 2006). "Carnegie Papers - Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations in the Post-9/11 Era" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-02-11.
  11. ^ a b c d e f End of Imaginary Durrand Line: North Pakistan belongs to Afghanistan by Wahid Momand
  12. ^ a b Government & Politics: Overview Of Current Political Situation In Afghanistan"(3) The Durand Line is an unofficial porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 1893, the British and the Afghan Amir (Abdur Rahman Khan) agreed to set up the Durand line (named after the foreign Secretary of the Indian government, Sir Mortimer Durand) to divide Afghanistan and what was then British India.
  13. ^ a b Durand Line
  14. ^ a b "Country Profile: Afghanistan" (PDF). Library of Congress Country Studies. August 2008. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
  15. ^ "The History of Herodotus, Chapter 7". George Rawlinson. piney.com. 440 BC. Retrieved 2011-02-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ "Baloch". Encyclopedia Britannica Online Version. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
  17. ^ Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah (Firishta). "History of the Mohamedan Power in India". Persian Literature in Translation. Packard Humanities Institute. Retrieved 2007-01-10.
  18. ^ "Kingdoms of South Asia – Afghanistan (Southern Khorasan / Arachosia)". The History Files. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
  19. ^ Multan city History
  20. ^ BRIG.-GEN. SIR Percy Sykes, K.C.I.E., C.B., C.M.G., GOLD MEDALIST OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. "A HISTORY OF AFGHANISTAN VOL. II". MACMILLAN & CO. LTD, 1940, LONDON. pp. 182–188, 200–208. Retrieved 2009-12-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ a b c d Prescott, J. R. V. Map of Mainland Asia by Treaty. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, Australia, 1975. pp. 182–208. ISBN 0 522 84083 3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |copyright= ignored (help)
  22. ^ Muhammad Qaiser Janjua. "In the Shadow of the Durand Line; Security, Stability, and the Future of Pakistan and Afghanistan" (PDF). Naval Postgraduate School, Monterrey, California, US, 2009. pp. 22–27, 45. Retrieved 2009-12-14.
  23. ^ "The Road to Kabul: British armies in Afghanistan, 1839-1919". National Army Museum. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
  24. ^ "Afghanistan 1919-1928: Sources in the India Office Records". British Library. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 1919 (May), outbreak of Third Anglo-Afghan War. British bomb Kabul and Jalalabad;
  25. ^ Jeffery J. Roberts, The Origins of Conflict in Afghanistan (Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2003), page 121.
  26. ^ Over 90% of present African nations signed both the Organization of African Unity (OAU) charter and the 1964 Cairo Declaration, both of which "proclaimed the acceptance of colonial borders as the borders between independent states...through the legal principle of uti possidetis." Hensel, Paul R. "Territorial Integrity Treaties and Armed Conflict over Territory" (PDF). Department of Political Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, US. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
  27. ^ Hensel, Paul R.; Michael E. Allison and Ahmed Khanani (2006) "Territorial Integrity Treaties, Uti Possidetis, and Armed Conflict over Territory." Presented at the Shambaugh Conference "Building Synergies: Institutions and Cooperation in World Politics," University of Iowa, 13 October 2006.
  28. ^ "The Durand Line: History and Problems of the Afghan-Pakistan Border" Bijan Omrani, published in Asian Affairs, vol. 40, Issue 2, 2009, p.177-195.
  29. ^ "Rethinking the Durand Line: The Legality of the Afghan-Pakistani Frontier", Bijan Omrani and Frank Ledwidge, RUSI Journal, Oct 2009, Vol. 154, No. 5,
  30. ^ Baxter, Craig (1997). "The Pashtunistan Issue". United States: Library of Congress Country Studies. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
  31. ^ Durand Line, 1956, page 12.
  32. ^ Durand Line, 1956, page 13
  33. ^ President Ronald Reagan Meeting Mujahideen and CIA in Pakistan (images)
  34. ^ "Interview with Peter Tomsen,". PBS Frontline. Retrieved 2011-02-11. President George H. W. Bush's special envoy and ambassador to the Afghan resistance from 1989 to 1992
  35. ^ a b The Unholy Durand Line, Buffering the Buffer by Dr. G. Rauf Roashan. August 11, 2001.
  36. ^ Pakistan's Ethnic Fault Line by Selig S. Harrison, The Washington Post. May 11, 2009.
  37. ^ "Afghan Geodesy and Cartography Head Office (AGCHO)". Retrieved 2009-12-05.
  38. ^ Daily Times - Durand Line Agreement: 1893 pact had no expiry limit: expert, by Mohammed Rizwan. September 30, 2005.
  39. ^ a b c Newsweek, No Man's Land - Neighbor's Interference
  40. ^ PAN, Independence Day observed in Peshawar, August 19, 2007.
  41. ^ PAN, Pashtuns on both sides of Pak-Afghan border show opposition to fencing plan, January 3, 2007.
  42. ^ PAN, More protests against fencing, January 10, 2007.
  43. ^ PAN, Fencing plan may defame Pakistan: Fazl, January 10, 2007.
  44. ^ PAN, Peshawar-based lawyers warn to move SC against fencing, January 10, 2007.
  45. ^ PAN, Governors oppose border fencing, January 9, 2007.
  46. ^ PAN, Protesters flay border fencing, January 7, 2007.
  47. ^ PAN, Border fencing a conspiracy: Taliban, January 7, 2007.
  48. ^ PAN, Pakistani forces start fencing: Governor, January 7, 2007.
  49. ^ Cite error: The named reference PAN was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  50. ^ a b RFE/RL Afghanistan Report
  51. ^ [1] NGA Geonames database
  52. ^ Clash erupts between Afghan, Pakistani forces over border fence - South Asia
  53. ^ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/fb_shkin.htm
  54. ^ http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-4285.html
  55. ^ Khan, Kamran. "Pakistan's Tribal Areas". PBS Frontline. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
  56. ^ United States Army - Soldiers disrupt timber smuggling in Afghan province
  57. ^ Dawn News - Timber smuggling from Afghanistan on the rise
  58. ^ Dawn News - Six Pakistanis held in Afghanistan on timber smuggling charge
  59. ^ Pakistan suggests curbs to end smuggling from Afghanistan
  60. ^ Open Congress - S.496 - Afghanistan and Pakistan Reconstruction Opportunity Zones Act of 2009
  61. ^ Biometric system installed in Spin Boldak. June 9, 2011.
  62. ^ "Pakistan fires missiles into Khost, say border police". Pajhwok Afghan News. 2011-07-01. Retrieved 2011-07-06. Nearly a dozen missiles were fired from Pakistan into Afghanistan's southeastern Khost province over the past 24 hours, border police said on Friday.
  63. ^ "Afghanistan won't fire back on Pakistan: Karzai". Reuters. 2011-07-01. Retrieved 2011-07-06.