Fence on Pak-Afghan border to secure both countries: military

ANGOOR ADDA: Pakistan’s military said on Wednesday that new fencing and guard posts along the border with Afghanistan would help prevent militant attacks in both countries, but the stepped-up fortifications have angered Kabul, which does not recognise the frontier as an international border, the Miami Herald reported.

Major General Nauman Zakaria, the commander for the South Waziristan tribal region, told reporters during a visit to the border that after the fencing is complete, no “terrorist” will be able to use Afghan or Pakistani soil to launch cross-border attacks. Pakistan began construction of the fencing in June.

Standing at a post overlooking Afghan villages across the border, Zakaria said troops and paramilitary forces had defeated militants by launching several operations in the troubled region, which was a longtime stronghold for al-Qaeda and the Taliban, as well as criminal gangs.

Pakistan plans to fence up most of the 2,500-km frontier despite Kabul’s protests that the  barrier would divide families and friends along the Pashtun tribal belt straddling the colonial-era Durand Line drawn up by the British in 1893. Pakistan's military estimates that it will need about Rs56 billion for the project, while there are also plans to build 750 border forts and employ high-tech surveillance systems to prevent militants crossing.

In the rolling hills of the Angoor Adda village in South Waziristan, part of Pakistan's restive Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), three rolls of barbed wire are sandwiched in the six-foot gap between the chicken wire fences.

"(The fence) is a paradigm change. It is an epoch shift in the border control management," said the Pakistan Army commander. "There will not be an inch of international border (in South Waziristan) which shall not remain under our observation.” Pakistan's military has so far fenced off about 43 km of the frontier, starting with the most violence-prone areas in FATA, and is expected to recruit tens of thousands of new troops to man the border. It is not clear how long it will take to fence the entire boundary.

But Pakistan's plans have also drawn criticism from across the border. Gulab Mangal, Governor of the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, told Reuters the wall will create "more hatred and resentment" between two neighbours and will do neither country any good. "The fence will definitely create a lot of trouble for the people along the border on both sides but no wall or fence can separate these tribes," he said. "I urge the tribes to stand against this action.

"Pakistan has blamed Pakistani Taliban militants it says are based on Afghan soil for a spate of attacks at home over the past year, urging Kabul to eradicate "sanctuaries" for militants.

Pakistan's previous attempts to build a fence failed about a decade ago and many doubt whether it’s possible to secure such a lengthy border. But Pakistani army officials are undeterred by the scepticism and insist they will finish the job as the country´s security rests on this fence.

"By the time we are done, inshallah, we will be very sure of one thing that nobody can cross this place," said the Pakistani officer in charge of South Waziristan.