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Home / IAS Preparation / Durand Commission

Afghanistan-Pakistan Durand Line for UPSC Exam

Last Updated on Jun 08, 2022
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The Durand Line is a relic of the 19th century Great Game between the Russian and British empires, in which the British exploited Afghanistan as a buffer against feared Russian expansionism to the east.

On November 12, 1893, British government servant Sir Henry Mortimer Durand and Afghan monarch Amir Abdur Rahman signed an agreement that became known as the Durand Line.

What do you understand about the Durand Line?

The Durand Line is Afghanistan’s and Pakistan’s 2,640-kilometer (1,640-mile) boundary. It is the consequence of an agreement between Sir Mortimer Durand, a British Indian government secretary, and Abdur Rahman Khan, Afghanistan’s emir, or ruler. On November 12, 1893, in Kabul, Afghanistan, the agreement was signed.

The Durand Line has been the formal border between the two countries for almost a century, yet it has caused controversy among the people who live there.

Pakistan was still a part of India when the Durand Line was established in 1893. India was in turn controlled by the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom ruled India from 1858 until India’s independence in 1947. Pakistan also became a nation in 1947.

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Brief history

Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat, devised the Durand Line to protect the British Empire’s interests from Tsarist Russia. The single-page Durand Line Agreement, signed in November 1893 by King Amir Abdur Rahman of Afghanistan, essentially created Afghanistan as a buffer zone between the two expansionist empires. Most historians agree that the border was set to keep vital areas like the Khyber Pass on the British Empire’s side. Experts say Durand had insufficient knowledge of the region’s ethnicity and topography, and hence divided traditional Pashtun tribal territories in error.

Why does Afghanistan oppose the Durand Line?
  • Kabul alleges that British India imposed the boundary unilaterally on Rahman, dividing families, alluding to the Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group and the cornerstone to any authority seeking legitimacy.
  • The Durand Line has never been acknowledged as Kabul’s international border with Pakistan by any Afghan government, including the previous (1995-2001) and present Taliban regimes.
  • When Pakistan was established in 1947 and inherited the Durand Line, Afghanistan questioned the legality of the agreement because it had been negotiated with the British Crown and should have lapsed at the time of independence.
  • Even before this, when the British were ready to leave India, Afghanistan discussed the prospect of reclaiming the Pashtun regions.
  • The British, on the other hand, stated that the matter might be discussed with the successor authorities,’ meaning Pakistan. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Pashtun leader at the time of partition, even proposed a separate Pashtun homeland named ‘Pashtunistan’.
  • Afghanistan even voted against Pakistan’s admission to the UN, stating that Islamabad should not be recognised until the ‘Pashtunistan’ problem was settled.
  • Since then, any attempt by Islamabad to legitimise the line has been met with swift opposition from Afghanistan, and several clashes have erupted in the region since 1947.
  • Some historians argue that because the Durand Line Agreement was never signed by any legislative authorities on either side, it was legally unenforceable. There are also financial considerations.

Why does Pakistan want to fence the Durand Line?
  • During the US-led war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2011, Pakistan took two key measures to secure control of the porous border and surrounding areas.
  • First, in late 2014, Pakistan began fencing its border with Afghanistan in response to a wave of cross-border terror attacks blamed on militant organisations such as Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which consists of small Pashtun militant groups sympathetic to the Taliban and fighting for an independent ‘Pashtunistan.’
  • Second, it incorporated the semi-autonomous tribal regions along the Durand Line into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan’s third largest. Islamabad claims it wants to build a border fence to prevent the “unchecked movement of terrorist elements” and smuggling. There are also geopolitical considerations.
  • Since East Pakistan seceded in 1971 to form Bangladesh, Islamabad has been fearful of any secessionist movement.
  • To counteract the threat of Pashtun nationalism, Islamabad has been frantically attempting to establish the Durand Line, which divides the Pashtun, as the legitimate international border.
  • It has also constructed a large number of madrassas in the western areas. These schools prioritise Islam over ethnic pride, which Islamabad hopes would dampen the push for a unified Pashtun homeland.

Why is the Durand Line a friction point between Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Cross-border tensions

Pakistan gained independence in 1947, inheriting the Durand Line as well as the Pashtun rejection of the line and Afghanistan’s unwillingness to recognise it. In 1947, Afghanistan was the only country that voted against Pakistan’s admission to the United Nations.

‘Pashtunistan,’ or an autonomous Pashtun homeland, was a demand made by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan during Partition, though he later accepted the fact of Partition. The proximity of the ‘Frontier Gandhi’ to India quickly became a source of contention between the two countries. The dread of Indian assistance for Pashtun nationalism continues to worry Pakistan and is ingrained in its Afghan policy.

Some perceive Pakistan’s formation and backing for the Taliban as an attempt to erase ethnic Pashtun nationalism in favour of an Islamic identity. However, it did not go as Pakistan had hoped. When the Taliban initially took power in Kabul, they rejected the Durand Line. They also combined Pashtun identity with Islamic radicalism to create the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, whose terrorist strikes have rocked the country since 2007.

The fence

As cross-border tensions reached a climax in 2017 with several attacks on Pakistani border posts by militants whom Pakistan accused Afghanistan of harbouring – while the Afghan government accused Pakistan of providing safe haven to the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network – Pakistan began erecting a fence along the Durand Line. While it may have reduced insurgent transit from Afghanistan into Pakistan, it did little to impede Afghan Taliban passage across and back.

Now that it is mostly finished, the fence has heightened tensions as Afghans and Pashtuns on both sides of the border regard it as a ploy by Pakistan to formalise the border and make their separation permanent. This is the fence that Zabiullah Mujahid stated the Taliban would not accept.

Pakistan believes that the fence will help manage any spillover from the upheaval and chaos in Afghanistan.

अफगानिस्तान-पाकिस्तान डूरंड लाइन के बारे में हिंदी भाषा में पढ़ें!

Durand Line:Geography Notes for UPSC Exam

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FAQs

Durand Line, a line created in the Hindu Kush in 1893 to mark the areas of influence of Afghanistan and British India; in recent times, it has designated the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Durand Line, a boundary established in the Hindu Kush in 1893 that runs across Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It was founded following a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in 1897 by Mortimer Durand of British India and Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan. It is known as a boundary line and is named after Mortimer Durand, the Foreign Secretary of colonial British India at the time.

The Durand Line is Afghanistan's and Pakistan's 2,640-kilometer (1,640-mile) boundary. It is the consequence of an agreement between Sir Mortimer Durand, a British Indian government secretary, and Abdur Rahman Khan, Afghanistan's emir, or ruler.

The Khyber Pass Economic Corridor (KPEC) connects Pakistan and Afghanistan with Central Asia. For hundreds of years, this route has been vital to trade in South and Central Asia.
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