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Pakistan

Durand Line has no legal status: Afghanistan

Dunya News

Afghanistan has strongly denied reports which claim that the Durand Line has been recognized.

According to a statement released by Afghan foreign affairs ministry, “The status of the Durand Line is a matter of historic importance for the Afghan people.”The statement further added, “The Afghan government therefore rejects and considers irrelevant any statement by anyone about the legal status of this line”, according to Afghan newspaper.This comes as earlier reports suggested that Marc Grossman US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan during his recent visit to Pakistan said that the Durand Line was recongized as the formal border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.The Durand Line refers to the 2,640 kilometers long porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was established after an 1893 agreement between Mortimer Durand of British India and Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan for fixing the limit of their respective spheres of influence.It is named after Mortimer Durand who was the Foreign Secretary of colonial British India at the time. The single-page Durand Line Agreement which contains seven short articles was signed by Durand and Abdur Rahman Khan, agreeing not to exercise interference beyond the frontier Durand Line.The treaty was to stay in force for a 100-year period. According to Afrasiab Khattak, a political analyst, the areas from the Khayber Agency Northwards to Chitral, however, remained un-demarcated.