As many as 19 Pakistani soldiers were killed after Afghanistan launched surgical strikes in Pakistan by crossing the Durand line, the de facto border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and captured several Pakistan Army posts, as per claims by local Aghan media.
The Afghanistan offensive came in response to Pakistan’s airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Paktika province on December 24, which, as per the Taliban government claims, killed 46 Afghan citizens, mostly women and children.
The Afghan Ministry of Defense wrote on social media platform X: “Several points beyond the hypothetical line (Durand Line) where the attacks in Afghanistan were organized and coordinated from wicked elements’ hideaways, centers and supporters; were targeted in retaliation from the southern side of the country.”
Inayatullah Khwarazmi, the spokesperson for the Afghanistan Ministry of Defense, said the attacks on December 28 were conducted in areas used to organize attacks on Afghan soil.
Asked whether the statement referred to Pakistan, ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khowarazmi said: “We do not consider it to be the territory of Pakistan… but it was on the other side of the hypothetical line.”
At the same time, Afghan government sources told Kabul-based TOLO News that during clashes between the forces of the Islamic Emirate and Pakistani military along the Durand Line, as many as 19 Pakistani soldiers and five Afghan civilians were killed.
According to the sources, the forces of the Islamic Emirate also set fire to some Pakistani military outposts beyond the Durand Line.
While the Pakistan government has acknowledged multiple clashes along the controversial Durand line, it has so far reported the death of only one Pakistani soldier.
“A Frontier Constabulary (FC) soldier was martyred, and 11 others were injured when Afghan forces launched unprovoked fire on multiple Pakistani border posts in the Upper Kurram district on Saturday morning,” Pakistan government sources were quoted as saying by the Dawn.
The Afghan forces targeted border posts in Ghozgarhi, Matha Sangar, Kot Ragha, and Tari Mengal areas using both light and heavy weaponry, the sources said, adding that Pakistani security forces retaliated, inflicting significant losses on the other side as seven to eight personnel of the Afghan forces were killed in the exchange of fire.
Earlier on December 26, multiple clashes were reported between the two countries at the Ghulam Khan crossing in the Gurbuz district of Khost Province in Afghanistan.
The recent clashes between the two countries come in the aftermath of Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan on December 24, which allegedly killed 46 Afghan nationals. Notably, this was the second airstrike conducted by Pakistan in Afghanistan this year. Earlier, Islamabad launched airstrikes in Afghanistan in March in which eight people, including women and children, were killed.
On both occasions, Pakistan has claimed to target the TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) hideouts in Afghanistan used to conduct terror attacks on Pakistani soil.
The March airstrikes by Pakistan were also followed by retaliatory measures by Afghanistan’s Taliban government. Following the airstrikes, a group of suicide bombers targeted a military check post in Pakistan’s North Waziristan district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and killed seven Pakistani soldiers.
The Controversial Durand Line
The Afghan Defense Ministry statement said that Afghanistan targeted several points beyond the “hypothetical line.”
When pressed about whether the statement referred to Pakistan, Afgnan Defense Ministry spokesman Khowarazmi said, “We do not consider it to be the territory of Pakistan… but it was on the other side of the hypothetical line.”
The “hypothetical line” referred to in the statement is the Durand line, which has served as the de facto border between Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1947. However, Afghanistan has never officially recognized the Durand line.
The Durand Line is a colonial-era construct. It was established in 1893 as the border between British India and the Emirate of Afghanistan. It is named after Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, who served as the foreign secretary of the colonial government of India.
Following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021, Islamabad had hoped for a friendly government in Kabul that would recognize the sanctity of the Durand line.
However, the statement by the Afghan Defense Ministry made it clear that the Taliban does not recognize the Durand Line. It is a clear indication that the Afghan-Pakistan border will continue to be a source of constant instability and tensions between the two countries.
The Great Game: Tale Of A Century And How The Afghan-Pak Border Was Constructed
‘The Great Game’ is a phrase immortalized by Rudyard Kipling in his tantalizing spy novel Kim. It describes the century-long tactical maneuvers between Great Britain and Tsarist Russia to control and influence the Emirate of Afghanistan.
By the 19th century, the British Indian Empire was already the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of the British monarchy. India was Britain’s largest and richest colony, and safeguarding it was one of Britain’s top priorities in the late 19th century.
This was also the time when Tsarist Russia was expanding swiftly, first in the Balkans and then in Central Asia.
In the 19th century, Ottoman Turkey and Tsarist Russia engaged in multiple wars and conflicts, which ended in similar outcomes: the loss of Ottoman Turkey. As Ottoman control receded from the Balkans, Caucasus, and Central Asia, Tsarist Russia expanded into territories formally controlled by the Ottomans.
The unprecedented Russian expansion made the British nervous, as they feared that it would eventually threaten their Indian Empire. By the 1870s, Afghanistan highlands were the only territory separating Tsarist Russia from the British Indian Empire.
And thus, Afghanistan became a pawn in the so-called Great Game. The Britishers wanted to turn Afghanistan into a buffer state to keep the Russians at bay.
For influence in Afghanistan, the Britishers invaded Afghanistan twice. First in 1839, sparking the First Anglo-Afghan War, in which Pashtun forces defeated the British. The second time was in 1878, leading to the Second Anglo-Afghan War, in which Afghans lost.
Britain installed Abdur Rahman Khan as the new emir of Afghanistan. In 1893, Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of the colonial government of India, induced Abdur Rahman Khan to agree to an international boundary.
Thus, the Durand Line was created, the 1,600-mile (2,600 km) long de facto border between Afghanistan and British India. However, it cut through the heart of Pashtun areas, dividing them into two countries.
When the Britishers left India in 1947, they divided the British-India Empire into two separate countries, India and Pakistan, and thus, the Durand line became the de facto border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
However, Afghanistan always viewed the Durand line as a colonial legacy imposed on them by a mighty imperial power that cheated them of their traditional Pashtun areas and has never accepted its sanctity.
The Pashtun people maintain family and religious ties on both sides of the border. For most of its existence, it made little practical difference to the lives of the people on either side as they frequently crossed the border.
However, in 2017, Pakistan decided to fence the entire Line, a decision opposed by the previous US-backed Afghan government as well as the Taliban government in Kabul.
Last year, Pakistan reported that the fencing project was 98% complete. This fence has physically split families and communities and is a constant source of friction between the Taliban and the Pakistani government.
Conclusion
Pakistani air strikes in Afghanistan represent a complex and multifaceted issue in South Asian geopolitics. These strikes and the Afghan response can further destabilize the volatile border region between the two countries.
While Pakistan justifies its actions as a necessary response to cross-border militancy, the long-term consequences of these strikes may not only strain Afghanistan-Pakistan relations further but also exacerbate the instability in the broader region.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from The University of Sheffield, UK. He is interested in studying Geopolitics from a historical perspective.
- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
