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Afghanistan doesn’t have ‘definitive’ border with Pakistan — Kabul

Border between Islamabad and Kabul 'still unclear' and that two countries have 'imaginary lines,' says acting Afghan Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs Noorullah Noori.

Reuters Archive

Pakistani soldiers stand guard in front of a member of the Taliban force, in the background, during an organised media tour to the Pakistan-Afghanistan crossing border, in Torkham. / Photo: Reuters Archive

Afghanistan has claimed that it has no "definitive" border with neighboring Pakistan.

Speaking to the media during a visit to the Torkham border crossing on Saturday, acting Afghan Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs Noorullah Noori claimed that the border between Islamabad and Kabul is “still unclear” and that the two countries have "imaginary lines."

Torkham is one of two major border crossings that connects Afghanistan's northeastern Nangarhar province to Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Commenting on the tensions that occasionally arise on the border between the two countries, he said Afghanistan is attempting to resolve these tensions in a "proper way."

“We do not have a formal border with Pakistan and there is no zero point as well. This (Durand Line) is an imaginary line between us,” Noori said.

Afghanistan does not recognize the Durand Line – the de facto border region between the two countries – on the grounds that it was created by a British colonial regime “to divide ethnic Pashtuns.”

However, Islamabad maintains that the Durand Line is a permanent border between the two countries.

Key Afghan-Pakistan border trading post at a standstill week after gunfight

Both Share 18 crossing points

The 2,640-kilometre (1,640-mile) border was established in 1893 as part of an agreement between India under British colonial rule and Abdur Rahman Khan, the then-ruler of Afghanistan.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share 18 crossing points and the most frequently used for trade and people movement are Torkham and Chaman, which connect Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province to Kandahar, Afghanistan's southern province.

Earlier in 2017, the Pakistani military began fencing the border with Afghanistan under the pretext of containing terrorist cross-border movement, a move that Kabul condemned.

Pakistan has seen a surge in terrorist attacks since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in Aug. 2021.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan's interim Taliban government of sheltering members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a conglomerate of several Pakistani militant groups that frequently attack Pakistan.

The Afghan Taliban have consistently denied these charges.