Pashtun tribes continue to face ire of Pakistani forces

KABUL: Afghan-Pak border tribes continue to face the ire of Pakistani forces as the latter's insistence to stamp its own view on the border dispute with the neighbouring country, which continues to claim innocent lives.

Writing for the Afghan Diaspora Network, columnist Hamid Pakteen said that those losing their lives include poor tribals from both sides who have been living through uncertainty for more than a century now. "At the heart of the dispute is the disagreement of the two countries on the Durand Line which is a border established under British colonial rule," he added.

Pakteen said the line divides the traditional Pashtun areas and population between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said that Afghanistan has always dismissed all Durand Line agreements, maintaining that Afghan rulers were coerced by British pressure. The border conflict between the two neighbours is over the line that divides not just the two countries but also the Pashtuns. This remains a bone of contention between the two nations but both chose to stay silent on several issues related to human rights.

The Durand Line passes through the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan. It also includes 10 provinces in Afghanistan. Disputed in the context of the struggle for the Pashtun homeland, it has of late become the cause of heightened border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to reports.

While Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harbouring Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on its soil, the Taliban do not recognize the Durand Line which separates the two countries and divides the home of ethnic Pashtuns. Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August last year, Pakistan has been trying to persuade the Afghan Taliban to crack down on TTP. Instead, the Afghan Taliban mediated talks between Islamabad and the Pakistani Taliban that led to the release of dozens of TTP prisoners in Pakistan, according to Al Arabiya. (ANI)

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