The geopolitics of Durand Line and the question of Pakistan-Occupied-Pashtunistan
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India’s Perception
India’s concerns over the developments over Durand Line can be examined over four prisms. These are :
- India should raise the issue of human rights violation in the Pashtun dominated regions of FATA, Khyber Pakhtun region by Pakistan .
- India should take steps to protect Hindu and Buddhist historical remnants located in the Pashtun dominated regions of Pakistan. This is necessary because there are number of reports which highlight the desecration of these historical monuments in the FATA and Khyber Pakhtun region by terrorist groups and lack of effective protection being provided by the Pakistani government.
- This is a known fact that most of the terrorist groups with the active support from Pakistan are operating in Khyber Pakhtun and FATA region thus posing a security threat to the peace process of Afghanistan. India and Afghanistan should jointly cooperate to tackle and checkmate the menace of terrorism.
- India should also provide legal and technical assistance to Afghanistan to resolve the Durand Line dispute.
To conclude, it can be added here that there is a need to look at the relevance of the Durand line agreement in the present context. Now there is no aggression from Russia and there is a democratically elected government in Afghanistan. In this context what is required is reintegration of the Pashtun dominated territories located in Pakistan with Afghanistan. It is surprising to note that the Taliban instead of focusing on how to take back their historical Pashtun territories located in Pakistan is indulging in violence and terrorist activities in Afghanistan with the active support of Pakistan.
The recent controversy between Afghanistan and Pakistan over fencing of the Durand line has to be studied in the foregoing discussion. The Durand line is becoming a major bone of contention between the two countries and going to inflate in future.
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