Afghanistan opposes fencing border with Pakistan

Afghanistan Tuesday repeated its firm opposition to fencing border with Pakistan.

"We are against fencing or erecting barriers on the Durand Line and would not accept it," Afghan Presidential spokesman Mohammad Karim Rahimi told newsmen at a press briefing.

He made these remarks just days after suggesting fencing border with Afghanistan by Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmoud Kasuri.

Khurshid Kasuri, according to media reports at a joint press conference with his Dutch counterpart Bernhard Bot on Sunday, stressed the need to seal the border with Afghanistan saying it could be fenced and jointly monitored in order to check terrorist activities.

Spokesperson of Pakistan's Foreign Ministry Tasneem Aslam, according to media report, also said Monday that Islamabad had proposed fencing and selectively mining the 2,500 km porous border with Afghanistan.

"Fencing the Durand Line or erecting barriers cannot curb terrorism except dividing the inhabitants of the people living on the both side of the line," Rahimi emphasized.

Demarcated in 1893 by the erstwhile British Empire, the Durand Line divides the Pashtun tribe which used to live on the both sides of the line over the past centuries.

Afghanistan's successive governments have not recognized the line as international border with the neighboring Pakistan.

Karimi also stressed that eliminating terrorism requires joint and coordinated struggle among Afghanistan, Pakistan and international community to target the root cause and breeding centers of terrorism but declined to name any specific country as the breeding center of terrorism.

Afghanistan officials often say that Taliban militants usually cross the Durand line and after conducting subversive activities go back to Pakistan, and such claim is rejected by Islamabad as groundless allegation.

Source: Xinhua