The ongoing conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan is also rooted in colonial divides and the incomplete American project in Afghanistan. The 2640 km-long Durand has a long history marked by political contention and geographical challenges. The solution lies beyond historical shadows and conventional border management tactics.
The legal foundation of the Durand Line is the agreement reached on 12 November 1893 between the representative of the British Imperial colony in the subcontinent, Sir Mortimer Durand and the emir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman Khan. However, the legal foundation faced contention from the Afghan side in 1947, as soon as the Radcliffe Award announced the contours of the decolonised state of Pakistan. The Afghan authorities declared that the agreement was signed under colonial duress. Thus, following the Subcontinent’s decolonisation, they refused to comply with the agreement.
The contention of subsequent Afghan authorities is based on political considerations, without any legal premise. First, the Afghan authorities argued that the Durand Line agreement was concluded with the British authorities, and that the decolonised state of Pakistan was not an eligible party to the agreement. Second, they considered it an outcome of colonial hijack. Lastly, it has also been claimed that the agreement was supposed to last for 100 years, until 1993. Therefore, they denied the Durand Line’s legal status.
On the contrary, Pakistan has maintained its stance in compliance with international law. The status of the Durand Line was recognised as an international border in the 1988 Geneva Accord and in numerous UNSC resolutions, including Resolution 1276. Furthermore, Pakistan’s legal duty to inherit the Durand Line agreement is well established by Article 62 of the Vienna Convention on the Laws of Treaties and Article 11 of the Vienna Convention on the Succession of States.
Pakistan has not only inherited the external boundaries of the former British colony but also the agreements reached by the British crown, as a recognised legal personality. Nevertheless, Afghan authorities have kept this issue confined to the political narrative, as Afghanistan has never raised it at any international forum.
The successive waves of instability in Afghanistan also created numerous challenges. From the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to the rise of the Taliban after the withdrawal of the US, Pakistan has been on the receiving end of instability in Afghanistan. The permeable border has allowed transfusion of threats across the border. From the influx of refugees to the rise of militancy, Pakistan has paid the highest cost of instability on the other side of the Durand Line. Attempts at consolidating the border through conventional means, however, have intensified grievances and militancy across the border.
Pakistan started fencing the contested border in 2017 and completed more than 85 per cent of the project by the time the Taliban government took over again. The frequency and intensity of the terrorist incidents, nonetheless, have been on the rise, with the highest number of attacks in 2025. Thus, the issue also requires unconventional modes of border management.
The rugged terrain of the north-western frontier, the ethnic distribution across that terrain, and the tribal organisation of society demand an unconventional mode of border management, for instance, the SMART (Secure, Measureable, Automated, Risk-based Technological) mechanism. Cutting trade and ties off has not only attracted criticism and anti-Pakistan sentiment in the areas proximal to the Durand Line, but also a surge in economic and humanitarian costs. Furthermore, kinetic actions to curb the terrorist threats have restrained the hostile elements for the time being, but the threat persists.
The solution to the problem lies beyond the Durand Line’s troubled history. Modern technology has enabled more efficient border management than conventional fencing and patrolling. Traditional border fencing can only be effective when coupled with technology, including drone- and satellite-based surveillance, and AI-integrated systems.
Digital systems can also be embedded at the border through a Geographical Information System (GIS) to record weather and terrain-related aspects of the Durand Line. Finally, an integrated biometric system can be used to avoid illegal border crossing. However, this upgradation is only possible with the mutual consent and commitment of both states.
Therefore, Pakistan and Afghanistan should optimise the temporary ceasefire to build a firm foundation of mutual resolve to settle the issue, given that geography is a permanent reality while political frictions are transient.
With a permanent legal and technologically implemented solution to the political contention, the Durand Line can serve as a corridor for trade, connectivity and people-to-people linkage, provided the convergence of authorities from both sides on the eradication of militancy materialises.
On a long-term basis, the common grounds of ethnic, religious and civilisational linkages are bound to bring the states together.
The writer is a research assistant at the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS), Islamabad. She can be reached at: [email protected]
