Border controls to be tightened, says Islamabad

KABUL): Senior Afghan and Pakistani security officials would meet soon to discuss regulating cross-border movements, in an effort to curb the insurgency in areas along the frontier, Islamabad says.

Islamabad was taking steps to tighten control over the porous western border, Pakistan‘s foreign policy advisor Sartaj Aziz said in an interview with Radio Free Europe. He hoped the move would help improve relations between the neighbours.

He promised the Pakistan government planned to issue special permits to residents of the border region to facilitate their movements and would step up the visa process for Afghan citizens.

“Even now we issue 1,000 or 2,000 visas to the Afghans every day. This is a process and we will know the outline of the new border management once Afghanistan and Pakistan work out its details,” he said.

Although Kabul does not recognise the British-era Durand Line as an international border, Aziz said: “We cannot let this border remain porous. We now have only two legal border crossings. We will increase them and will facilitate the [legal] movement of people with visas or permits.”

Kabul’s concerns over cross-border attacks were being addressed, the advisor said, adding his country had urged India to agree on not supporting rival Afghan factions after the pullout of foreign troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

Pakistan and India supporting different factions in Afghanistan would not help improve the situation in the war-torn country, he argued, saying that the world should accept what the Afghans themselves decided about their future.

PAN Monitor/mud

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