CHAPTER 9

Bordering on blame game

Tahir Khan*

* Tahir Khan is an Islamabad-based freelance journalist who reports for The Express Tribune. He is also editor of News Network International, an independent news portal. With several attacks along ’s Afghan forces have conducted a series of western border with , security operations against Maulvi Fazalullah(the remained fragile in 2016. TTP’s chief) but failed. In a way, therefore, the Afghan leaders accept that Pakistani The most prominent attack was a suicide militant leader is hiding in the Afghan bomb during Friday prayers in a mosque in border region. late September, killing 34 people. The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s Hafiz Saeed Khan, chief of the Islamic splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed State of Daesh for the Khurasan region, responsibility, arguing the naïve notion was killed in a U.S. drone strike in that the slain people were part of the pro- Afghanistan’s eastern government peace committees. Locals say in August.318Several other senior Pakistani majority of those killed were children as Taliban leaders were also killed in they were standing in the last rows. Afghanistan this year, including Omar Mansoor alias Narai and Azam Tariq, Like other Pakistani armed groups, Ahrar is strengthening the notion that Pakistani also seen as a threat to the security in the Taliban leaders have sanctuaries in border regions. The splinter group was Afghanistan’s border launched in August 2014 after differences regions.319 320Pakistani journalists who 316 emerged in the Taliban ranks. Today, the cover terrorism-related issues, mostly in group, which mainly comprises of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, say former TTP militants from Mohmand tribal they routinely receive phone calls on region, has emerged as a major threat, AfghaniSIMs when the militant groups claiming several deadliest attacks in which claim responsibility for attacks in Pakistan. mostly civilians lost their lives. Pakistani Taliban, however, have never On November 26, a group of four bombers publicly confirmed they are hiding on the attacked a Frontier Corps camp in Afghan side of the border. A Pakistani Mohmand agency and killed at least two Taliban leader once said that pushing security personnel and injured 14 others, them to Afghanistan “would be more according to the military spokesman. Ahrar dangerous for Pakistan.”321Afghan officials, claimed the attack and released an image on their part, insist that Taliban, whom 317 of the four bombers. they call armed opponents, operate from the Pakistani side of the border, which is One of the contentious issues by attacks the main source of tension between the along the border areas is about their two countries. Afghan ambassador in location. Pakistani officials believe Ahrar’s Islamabad, Omar Zakhilwal, in an militantsoperate from the Afghan side of interview with Waqt TV news channel in the border. The same is said of some December, said his country is “asking other leaders. Afghan leaders – President Pakistan not to allow space for Taliban and Chief Executive Dr recruitment, space for their meetings and Abdullah Abdullah – have publicly said space for their leadership.”322In May 2016, Pakistan Security Report | 2016

Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Border management Mansoor was killed - in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.323 Afghan The traditional blame game and public government leaders insist that the Taliban accusations are unhelpful and further elected their new “Amir-ul-Momineen” or widen mistrust which also affected efforts commander of faithful in a gathering in by both countries to agree on any effective Balochistan. border management. A senior Pakistani official believed that border management There are signs that various factions of the is now more important even than Taliban may form an alliance at least for Pakistan’s quest for helping in encouraging joint or coordinated operations and attacks the Afghan Taliban to join the peace in Pakistan. There are even reports of at process. Pakistan seemed serious in the least two meetings of the representatives border management and did not budge an of the TTP, TTP Ahrar, other TTP splinter inch from its plan to make travel groups – Khain Said and Shaheryar groups documents for Afghans entering Pakistan. – in which they have agreed on combined The plan was first introduced at Torkham, operations. Moreover, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi one of the busiest crossings from June and Daesh now coordinate attacks; Daesh 2016.324 provides manpower and Lashkar facilitate the attacks. This way, Lashkar seems to Pakistan army’s spokesman Lt Gen Asim have shifted focus to Daesh from its Bajwa said last year the new border longstanding association with al-Qaeda. management system will also be put in The Taliban groups’ new alliance and the place at 18 crossing points to check the Daesh-Lashkar strategy could be seen as a cross-border movement. More people new challenge for Pakistan. It seems would be recruited for the Frontier Corps, security challenges could remain for a long mainly responsible for the border security time as Pakistan and Afghanistan are not with Afghanistan. taking serious measures to deal with the Earlier, thousands of Afghans, especially threat. those living in the border region, would Pakistan is now facing a dilemma of the cross the border without valid travel presence of the Pakistani militants in documents. Spokesman for the Pakistan’s Afghanistan border regions, and the Embassy in Kabul, Akhtar Munir, says the mistrust between Pakistan and Afghanistan Embassy and the country’s four consulates hinder the efforts to secure the border. in Afghanistan would issue nearly 2000 visas daily but up-to 18,000 people from Afghanistan would enter Pakistan, majority without travel documents, on a single day.

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Pakistani officials argue militants would take any unilateral decisions regarding the take advantage of the loose border control border issues. and would enter without any proper check. They also claim that the militants who Pakistan disagreed with the notion and were involved in the attacks on the Bacha argued that the gate, now completed and Khan University in Charsadda district formally inaugurated, was over 30 meters (January 2016); the Pakistan Air Force inside the Pakistani side of the border, residential colony near which Afghans call as “Durand Line.” Some (September 2015); and the Army Public Afghans viewed the development as a School in Peshawar (December 2014), had move by Pakistan to push for its entered Pakistan via Torkham from longstanding quest to get the Durand Line Afghanistan. recognized. Although Pakistan considers Durand Line as a closed chapter, On their part Afghans have serious Afghanistan says it is an unresolved issue. suspicions about Pakistan’s new border Afghans have deep suspicions about every mechanism and view it as a move to push step taken regarding the border. for the recognition of the border. Afghan officials disagree with Pakistan’s stance Cross-border movement of the militants and instead insist that the militants have will remain one of the major irritants in various routes in the rugged mountains to relations between Pakistan and cross the border. Afghanistan unless they agree on a strategy to jointly secure the porous Whatever arguments Pakistan and border. Mistrust and suspicion have Afghanistan might have been, both the hindered efforts to agree on a joint countries facing are security challenges mechanism to monitor the porous nearly and will have to eventually agree on some 2600 kilometers border, which the Afghan sort of mechanism to address to the call “Durand Line.” border security. Both have failed to reactivate the Border Pakistani and Afghan troops were involved Coordination Centers along the two major in clashes for days in June this year at crossing points – Torkham and Chaman. Torkham, the busiest border crossing They were part of the trilateral between the troops of the two countries, coordination centers along with ISAF until after Afghan forces tried to prevent the U.S.-led NATO forces formally ended Pakistan from building a gate.Afghans their combat mission by end 2014. insisted construction of the gate was in violation of the understanding between the The coordination centers were crucial for two countries and that Pakistan cannot sharing information on the illegal

134 Pakistan Security Report | 2016 movement by the militants. The uneasy never happened in the wake of tense neighbors had initially agreed to revive the relationship and deep suspicions among Centers when the relations warmed up Afghans, who view any action about the following the visit to Pakistan by President border by Pakistan as an attempt to get Ashraf Ghani in November 2014. But it the Durand Line recognized.

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