Durand line and Afghan conflict

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Durand line (a 2640 Kms. border ) was originally established in 1893 as the international border between British India and the Emirate of Afghanistan by Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat of Indian Civil Service, and Abdur Rahman Khan, the Afghan Emir, to fix the limit of their respective spheres of influence and improve diplomatic relations. He was sent to secure control of strategic Khyber pass, negotiate agreement to delineate the border between Afghanistan and British India.     

The new border, dubbed the Durand line, divided the Pashtun tribal lands into two. Half of the Pashtun tribal region became part of British India, and the other half remained as part of Afghanistan. Afghanistan governs all the Pashtuns on one side of Durand line, while Pakistan governs all the Pashtuns on the other. Officials who drew the Durand line didn't consider the ethnic groups who lived in the region, today there are many battles along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. On one side is the Pakistani army, made up mostly of Punjabis, and on the other is the Taliban, made up mostly of Pashtuns.       

 The boundary has since been viewed with utter contempt and resentment by Pashtuns on both sides of the line, which also cause Afghanistan to lose the province of Baluchistan, depriving the country of its historic access to Arabian sea. As British prepared to leave India, Afghanistan demand to revision of the border was denied. During cold war, Pakistan became an ally of United States, while Afghanistan sought diplomatic and military support from Soviet Union. The larger U.S. -Soviet rivalry over shadowed the Afghan-Pakistani dispute, preventing the resolution of the Durand line problem.

The protracted armed conflict in Afghanistan owes its origin to a combination of factors such as underdevelopment, internal power politics geographical location and the cold war rivalries of USSR and USA. The same factors contribute  to its continuation. 

Given the enormity of involved actors, absence of political will for resolution of conflict, lack of incentives for peace, inability of the international assistance to influence a positive change, the prospects of peace in the foreseeable future seems to be very gloomy in Afghanistan. It's the responsibility of Afghans and Afghan NGO s particularly those already involved in peace building to further expand their activities, capitalize on the prevailing conditions and focus on the establishment of peace constituencies to uphold peace accords that may reach at leadership level.  



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