Pakistan starts fencing its border with Afghanistan

Pakistan has started erecting a fence along its border with Afghanistan, a decision it says has been prompted by a spate of bombings last month which were traced back to militants hiding inside the Afghan territory.

Initially, the border portions along high-threat zones including Bajaur and Mohmand tribal areas are being fenced.

Islamabad is also employing additional technical surveillance means along the border in addition to regular air surveillance to thwart cross-border movement of terrorists that include factions of Pakistani Taliban.

The development comes as Pakistan and Afghanistan border remains tense with a lot of militants from the Afghan side attacking Pakistani security posts. Two main border crossings – Torkham and Chamman -which were closed last month were only reopened recently – a decision Pakistan said it took on humanitarian grounds.

Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa said Saturday Pakistan Army would employ all resources required for defence of the country, and safety and security of peace loving tribes.

He said that efforts were in hand to evolve a bilateral border security mechanism with Afghan authorities.

The army chief noted that a better managed, secure and peaceful border was in the mutual interests of both countries, who had given phenomenal sacrifices in the war against terrorism.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is also taking political and administrative steps to mainstream the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, with a focus on the development in the areas that until a few years ago served as hotbed of militancy.

According to the military wing of the Pakistani military, ISPR, General Bajwa was briefed during his visits to the tribal areas about border security arrangements, cross border terrorist threat and recent terrorist attacks from across the border on the Pakistani posts.

The army chief interacted with troops at Suran and Kalaya, and hailed their high morale, operational preparedness and effective response to recent cross-border terrorist attacks. He appreciated actions that eliminated five terrorists, including high-value terrorist in a recent intelligence-based operation. He greatly valued martyrdom of army officers and soldiers during the operation.

This week hundreds of trucks crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan after the border was reopened for the first time in more than a month,.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 2,600 km long porous border. The closure of border badly hurt the Afghan exporters as the landlocked country greatly depends on Pakistan for its international trade.

Since Pakistan launched a massive clean-up operation, Zarb-e-Azb, in the tribal areas a few years ago, militants belonging to the Tehreek-i-Taliban and its splinter groups – which fought the Pakistani state for several years – have been routed largely. But still many terrorists targeting Pakistan took refuge on the Afghan side in 2010 when militants fleeing military operations in Swat and Bajaur found hideouts there.

The militants belonging to Jamaatul Ahrar, which split with the Taliban in 2014, has been carrying out attacks inside Pakistan from their Afghan sanctuaries. Despite Pakistan’s strong protests, Afghans have failed to act against those sanctuaries. For its part, Kabul says Pakistan should against Afghan Taliban, particulaly the Haqqani network, which it alleges, has sanctuaries in Pakistan.

Lately, the emergence of Islamic State in Afghanistan has exacerbated security challenges, and Pakistan has said it is ready to work with the United States against the militant outfit, which threatens the region.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan faces a lot of troubles including political wrangling, lack of trained and efficient security services which have not been able to arrest the Afghan Taliban insurgency that also benefits from opium trade.

In Washington, meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s Administration has not defined its Afghan policy. Moscow is hosting a conference of regional countries next month as Afghanistan’s neighbors remain concerned over its failure and Kabul’s inability to work out reconciliation with the Afghan Taliban who are reconcilable and promise to work for peace.