Saher Liaqat & Abu Hurrairah Abbasi
The Pak-Afghan border skirmishes on the volatile Durand line in early October represent one of the most active confrontations between the two neighbors since the Taliban returned to power in 2022. What started as a border conflict has evolved into a question about the long-standing Pak-Afghan policy, as well as a potential trigger of future instability across the region. Pakistan’s strategic depth has now become its most lethal liability. It has become painfully clear since the recent attacks.
For nearly two decades, the Pakistani policy on Afghanistan was based on the strategic depth, i.e., maintaining a friendly or at least amenable regime in Kabul to cushion the western frontier of Pakistan. The doctrine was based on two key concerns: the threat of militant Islamist organizations, such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Indo-Pak rivalry. An amicable or compliant Afghan Taliban was meant to contain both. In the 1990s, Islamabad viewed the Taliban as a means to achieve both objectives, even extending political and diplomatic support to ensure a congenial neighbor. Pakistan continued to maintain ties with the Afghan Taliban after 9/11, while aligning with Washington’s war on terror.
The Taliban regime that came back to power in 2021 turned out to be far more aggressive than expected. The new regime in Kabul has lost the stigma of being a client force and, instead, has been emboldened by its victory over the Western powers, becoming an active defender of Afghanistan’s sovereignty. Despite Islamabad’s pressing for action against the TTP, Kabul terms it an internal issue of Pakistan. Deep ethnic and ideological links between the Afghan Taliban and the TTP have rendered meaningful cooperation.
The situation was further heightened by Pakistan’s fencing of the Durand Line, an act to protect its border, but one that Kabul views as a one-sided institutionalization of a colonial-era cleavage separating Pashtun tribes. The result is a growing mistrust in bilateral relations. Pakistan feels that Afghanistan is a refuge for militants that attack its territory, and the Taliban denies Pakistan’s claims to its sovereignty. Pakistan’s long-cherished notion of strategic depth has now devolved into a strategic deadlock, with both parties increasingly viewing each other as threats rather than allies.
Recent Pak-Afghan Clashes in Perspective
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