Work on border fence between Pakistan and Afghanistan to continue, says Foreign Minister
Pakistan has vowed to continue erecting a fence along the Afghan border after videos emerged of Taliban fighters tearing down a Pakistani military’s barbed wire meant for fencing in areas adjacent to Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
At a news conference on Monday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi stated that Afghanistan is a friendly and neighboring country and that the matter would be resolved through diplomatic channels.
“Don’t worry, we are not silent,” he said. “That effort will continue”.
Some quarters, according to the Foreign Minister, seek to intensify the situation, which is not in Pakistan’s best interests. “Pakistan will do what is best for the country.”
Videos showing Taliban militants pulling down barbed wire which was to be used by the Pakistani army to fence border areas adjacent to Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province have been making rounds on social media in recent days.
The Pakistani government had issued an official statement on the incident but the Foreign Office had announced that the Pakistan Army was investigating matters related to fencing and would issue a statement.
The Afghan Taliban claim that Pakistan has erected a fence inside Afghanistan.
Two security personnel were killed in terrorist operations against the Pakistani army from the Afghan border in October.
The boundary between the two countries is 2611 kilometers long. The length of the Afghan border with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province alone is 1229 kilometers.
Following the border firing in June 2016, Pakistan chose to build a fence along its long border with Afghanistan to ensure security, committing $500 million to the project initially.
The fencing was planned to be completed in December 2019; however, it was postponed owing to terrorist attacks on the Pak-Afghan border and other factors. As of now, 96% of the fence work has been completed.
