Pakistan ramps up security at Afghan border
Pakistan will reinforce its Afghan border with tens of thousands more troops to stem the flow of militants.
As many as 60,000 paramilitaries are being raised to step up patrols along the mountainous border. The recruitment for Pakistan’s Frontier Corps comes as the country builds a fence along the 2,300-kilometre boundary.
About 40 per cent of the new force has been recruited, military officials said.
The reinforcements would deter infiltration from Afghanistan, where militant groups, including the Pakistan Taliban, are in hiding, they said.
“This is a really significant step by the Pakistan military to highlight their growing concerns over infiltration of militants and others from across the border,” said Viraj Solanki of the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank in London. Pakistan’s army has 661,000 full-time and paramilitary troops and previously focused its defences on the eastern border with India.
The Pakistani Taliban have largely been pushed out by military operations and have taken refuge in eastern Afghanistan. Other extremist groups such as ISIS also operate over the Afghan border. Security in Pakistan has improved in recent years, although about 200 people were killed in election violence in the past month.
Even with the new forces, securing the border without Afghanistan’s help will be difficult, Mr Solanki said.
Pakistan and Afghanistan each denounce the other for harbouring insurgents, while Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, has accused Pakistan of waging an “undeclared war of aggression” against his nation.
Kabul does not recognise the Durand Line as the border, which was drawn up when Pakistan was under British rule as part of India, and is opposed to it being demarcated with a fence.
“For the measure to be completely effective it will need a similar level of commitment from across the border with the Afghan army and I don’t see that happening,” Mr Solanki said.
About 13 per cent of the border security fence has been completed and it will include cameras and hundreds of fortified posts. Pakistan’s commanders believe it will deter all but the most determined insurgents.
While it may cut infiltration into Pakistan, it is not clear how much the fence will reassure the United States, which has demanded Islamabad stop militant groups from conducting attacks in Afghanistan from bases in Pakistan.
Anger over the issue led President Donald Trump to suspend US aid to Pakistan in January, saying America had received only “lies and deceit” in return.
A paper by the Afghanistan Analysts’ Network last year said there were well established “commuting routes” for the Afghan Taliban to travel into Pakistan for rest, training or meetings and then return to fighting.
It found 235 crossing points, of which only 20 were used frequently and only two have formal border controls in place.
“I don’t think this will satisfy the US,” Rashid Ahmed Khan, the head of international relations at Pakistan’s University of Central Punjab, told Bloomberg.
“It’s one of the most porous borders in the world – if one side continues to oppose it, then this can’t be that effective.”
Pakistan’s Imran Khan said after his general election victory last month that he wanted to see a European Union-style open border with Afghanistan.