Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
December 27, 2006
Pg. 10
By Salman Masood
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 26 — The Pakistani Army will seal the craggy 1,510-mile Afghanistan border with fences and booby traps to thwart incursions into Afghan territory by Pakistan-based Taliban militants and their sympathizers, the government said Tuesday.
The announcement, which was quickly dismissed by Kabul as impractical, was a response to a barrage of criticism from Afghanistan that Pakistan had failed to stop Taliban insurgents, including suicide bombers, from crossing the border from their Pakistan redoubts.
The fighters have regrouped there since the American-led invasion of Afghanistan drove them out of power five years ago.
“The Pakistan Army has been tasked to work out modalities for selectively fencing and mining the Pakistan-Afghanistan border,’’ Riaz Mohammed Khan, the foreign secretary, said at a news briefing in Islamabad, the capital. “These measures will supplement the measures which are already in force.”
Pakistan already has an estimated 80,000 troops on its porous border with Afghanistan.
Mr. Khan said Pakistan would also deploy an unspecified number of additional troops at the border. He provided no information about when Pakistan intended to start fencing and mining the border.
Afghanistan has long complained that Pakistan must do more to contain Taliban operations originating on its territory, especially in its northwestern semi-autonomous tribal areas. Pakistan officials have repeatedly asserted that they do not support the Taliban.
Pakistan and Afghanistan share a border known as the Durand Line, which has remained a source of contention between the two countries. Demarked by the British in 1893, it is not recognized by the Afghan side while Pakistan considers it a legal international border.
Ethnic Pashtun tribes live on both sides of the Durand Line. Blood relations can be found on both sides.
The announcement on Tuesday was seen by some Pakistani analysts as a desperate measure by Pakistan in its bid to allay United States and NATO concerns over increased border activity by the Taliban.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have traded accusations over who bears responsibility for permitting the Taliban to accumulate strength and mount attacks on NATO and allied troops.
“It’s a measure out of frustration,” Najam Sethi, the editor of The Daily Times, one of the country’s leading newspapers, said in a telephone interview.
Khaleeq Ahmed, a spokesman for the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, was quoted by the news media as saying: “Fencing the border is neither helpful nor practical. That’s why we are against it. The border is not where the problem lies.”
December 27, 2006
Pg. 10
By Salman Masood
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 26 — The Pakistani Army will seal the craggy 1,510-mile Afghanistan border with fences and booby traps to thwart incursions into Afghan territory by Pakistan-based Taliban militants and their sympathizers, the government said Tuesday.
The announcement, which was quickly dismissed by Kabul as impractical, was a response to a barrage of criticism from Afghanistan that Pakistan had failed to stop Taliban insurgents, including suicide bombers, from crossing the border from their Pakistan redoubts.
The fighters have regrouped there since the American-led invasion of Afghanistan drove them out of power five years ago.
“The Pakistan Army has been tasked to work out modalities for selectively fencing and mining the Pakistan-Afghanistan border,’’ Riaz Mohammed Khan, the foreign secretary, said at a news briefing in Islamabad, the capital. “These measures will supplement the measures which are already in force.”
Pakistan already has an estimated 80,000 troops on its porous border with Afghanistan.
Mr. Khan said Pakistan would also deploy an unspecified number of additional troops at the border. He provided no information about when Pakistan intended to start fencing and mining the border.
Afghanistan has long complained that Pakistan must do more to contain Taliban operations originating on its territory, especially in its northwestern semi-autonomous tribal areas. Pakistan officials have repeatedly asserted that they do not support the Taliban.
Pakistan and Afghanistan share a border known as the Durand Line, which has remained a source of contention between the two countries. Demarked by the British in 1893, it is not recognized by the Afghan side while Pakistan considers it a legal international border.
Ethnic Pashtun tribes live on both sides of the Durand Line. Blood relations can be found on both sides.
The announcement on Tuesday was seen by some Pakistani analysts as a desperate measure by Pakistan in its bid to allay United States and NATO concerns over increased border activity by the Taliban.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have traded accusations over who bears responsibility for permitting the Taliban to accumulate strength and mount attacks on NATO and allied troops.
“It’s a measure out of frustration,” Najam Sethi, the editor of The Daily Times, one of the country’s leading newspapers, said in a telephone interview.
Khaleeq Ahmed, a spokesman for the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, was quoted by the news media as saying: “Fencing the border is neither helpful nor practical. That’s why we are against it. The border is not where the problem lies.”