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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the Taliban authorities have reached an understanding to resolve the issue of border fencing by agreeing that further fencing would be done through consensus, a senior official said on Friday.
According to a report, Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan disrupted the erecting of a security fence by the Pakistani military along the border between the two countries – Nangarhar – and took away spools of barbed wire.
Talking to a group of journalists, the official said it has been decided at a senior level that fencing-related issues would in future be dealt with through mutual agreement.
The official said a local intelligence chief of the Taliban tried to remove the fence and it was not a decision approved by the Taliban leadership. Soon after the incident Pakistan and the Taliban established contact at the highest level and agreed to resolve the issue through talks.
He also disclosed that acting Afghan defence minister Mullah Yaqub visited the troubled region and directed local Taliban commanders not to take such measures in the future.
Fencing has been a contentious issue in Pakistan-Afghanistan ties because the Afghans dispute the border demarcation done during the colonial period. Pakistan, however, insists that the line separating the two countries, also called Durand Line, is the valid international border.
The differences over the status of the border have been so intense that they have in the past resulted in several fatal clashes between the troops of the two countries. Pakistan has been fencing the 2600-kilometer-long border with Afghanistan since 2017 to end terrorist infiltration and smuggling.
The incident
A video circulated on social media showed Taliban soldiers had seized spools of barbed wire and one senior official warning Pakistani soldiers stationed in security posts in the distance not to try to fence the border again.
Afghan defence ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khwarazmi said Taliban forces stopped the Pakistani military from erecting an “illegal” border fence along the eastern province of Nangarhar on Sunday.
Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said they were investigating the incident. Taliban and Pakistani forces came face-to-face over the border incident, two Taliban officials said on condition of anonymity, and the situation was tense.
They added that following the incident there was cross-border mortar fire from Pakistani territory further north along the frontier into Afghanistan’s Kunar province on Wednesday.
