Fencing along Afghan border nears completion, says military
The military said on Monday it has nearly completed a fence along the border with Afghanistan, which Islamabad says is necessary to prevent militant attacks from both sides.
Maj. Gen. Babar Iftikhar, spokesman for Pakistan’s armed forces, said more than 83 per cent of the fence along the 2,611km border with Afghanistan — known as the Durand Line — has been completed.
The remaining work at the country’s western border was expected to be completed by the middle of the year, he told a televised news conference in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Islamabad says it is erecting the fence to stop the movement of Pakistani Taleban, remnants of Al Qaeda, and other foreign militants who prior to the fence’s construction could easily launch cross-border attacks on both sides. It was easier for militants to return to Afghanistan after launching attacks inside Pakistan, Pakistani officials say.
Authorities said fencing at the border with Iran in southwestern Balochistan province is also under way to check smuggling and militant activity.
Pakistan says it is trying to better manage the border so that militants cannot launch crossborder attacks in either country and Maj. Gen. Iftikhar said that effort has already played a key role in reducing militant attacks inside Pakistan.
He said Pakistani security forces have arrested or killed 1,100 Al Qaeda militants since Pakistan joined the war on terror following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Some 83,000 Pakistanis, mostly civilians but also security forces, have died in the fighting, he said. “We are not out of the woods yet but we are almost there,” Maj. Gen. Iftikhar said, indicating there are still militants to fight. However, he claimed there were now no organised militant groups, including the Daesh group, in Pakistan.
The Daesh, however, in recent years has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks inside Pakistan, including the January 3 killing of 11 coal miners from the minority Hazara community in southwestern Balochistan province. Maj. Gen. Iftikhar, however, said there were only remnants of militant groups left in Pakistan, including Daesh.