Border goodwill

Marking the start of Ramazan with a gesture of goodwill to Afghanistan, Pakistan opened the Friendship Gate at the Chaman border 22 days after it was sealed. The move, which the ISPR said was requested by the Afghan government, is welcome especially with the onset of the holy month as there are many Afghans who work in Pakistan and need to cross the border regularly. Ideally, free movement across the border should not be hampered – for the sake of the people living in the area and to allow trade to continue. But these are not ideal times. The border was closed in May after Afghan forces deliberately fired on a census team and its security escorts. Afghanistan, which is yet to accept the internationally-recognised Durand Line as the border, claimed the team had strayed onto its territory even though it had been informed in advance that the census would be carried out in the area. Earlier this year, in February, Pakistan had been forced to close the border after the suicide attacker who targeted the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine was believed to have crossed over from Afghanistan. Then too, Pakistan eventually relented and reopened the Chaman crossing but it did not prevent further cross-border violence. The closure of the border then did not stir Afghanistan into action against militants operating on its territory or even refrain from attacking Pakistani itself. This time will need to be different.

Part of the reason Afghanistan has not acted against militants who target Pakistan is that it is facing an increasingly difficult task in subduing its own militants. There has been a rash of attacks in the country in recent months, including a car bomb in Khost that killed at least 18 people on the very day the border was reopened. Afghanistan has blamed Pakistan for sheltering and even supporting the Afghan Taliban, just as we accuse Afghanistan of doing the same for the TTP. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has even refused to visit Pakistan until we hand over members of the Afghan Taliban that he believes are in Afghanistan. In this atmosphere of distrust, reopening the border will itself not resolve any differences but it can be the first step in gradually improving ties. Both sides will now need to abstain from accusations. Afghanistan, in particular, has to ensure there are no more incidents like the attack on the census team. Such cooperation is necessary to defeat the militant threat. There is nothing that empowers both countries’ enemies as much as us being so busy fighting each other that we do not notice the true danger.