Pakistan builds border fence, limiting militants and families alike

TORKHAM • Above the trucks and travellers lining up at the main eastern gateway between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a glinting new landmark scales the dun-coloured mountains: Parallel mesh fences, set apart and topped with coils of razor wire, climb from the border crossing up over the dizzying crags.

The section of fence overlooking Torkham crossing is just a glimpse of the 2,600km barrier begun four years ago by Pakistan's military and set to be completed this year.

Nearly 14,500km from United States President Donald Trump's border wall with Mexico, Pakistan has quietly been building its own version to try to control what has long been one of the world's most porous and lawless frontiers.

The Pakistani army credits the fence with helping to transform security in the country, sharply cutting terrorist attacks after a sustained army offensive pushed many militants - and tens of thousands of civilian refugees - into Afghanistan.

But the barrier is also a projection of hard power in its own right, to the detriment of diplomacy with Afghanistan and the life of Pashtun tribes that had functionally ignored the border for generations.

Afghanistan disputes the border that the fence follows, drawn by British colonial officials in 1893 and known as the Durand Line. And as the wire unfurls over hundreds of kilometres, it is cutting off routes through the mountains used by smugglers, militants, traders and families alike, according to interviews with government officials, tribal leaders and diplomats.

Pakistan had long considered a border barrier. But construction began in earnest in 2016, after costly army offensives to push many militants out of the country's tribal areas and into Afghanistan.

About 1,290km of the US$450 million (S$640 million) fence is now complete and more than 1,000 border forts are being built, according to a statement from the Pakistani military's information wing.

The vast majority of the work has been out of view of the public or other governments.

One senior Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the public, said: "It's a herculean task because of the terrain up there."

Despite that difficulty, senior officers said the fence has had an appreciable affect on security even though it has not been finished.

They cite a sharp drop in attacks by militants linked to the Pakistani Taleban - known as Tehrik-e-Taleban - after many were driven into Afghanistan.

Last year, only 82 attacks in Pakistan were attributed to that network, down from 352 in 2014 when the military offensive began, according to the Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies, which monitors extremist violence.

But in recent months, there have been increasing reports that some Pakistani Taleban fighters have managed to come back to some of the tribal areas in the north-west.

Last Monday, at least three people, including a Pakistani colonel, were killed in a shootout between soldiers and militants in Tank district, near South Waziristan.

Fence construction groups have also been attacked by militants, who have released videos of themselves tearing down sections and seizing building supplies.

Corruption and bribery are also likely to help people find ways through in a region where smuggling has been a way of life for many.

The fence may slow down illegal crossings, but it will not stop them entirely, said Ms Elizabeth Threlkeld, a former US diplomat in the border city of Peshawar.

"Many of those determined to cross, including both militants and local residents whose livelihoods depend on smuggling, will find a way," she added.

"The greater impact of the fence will instead be on Pashtun communities spanning the border, who will lose the ability to cross freely to visit family or do business."

Cross-border trails and roads were once common in the mountains on either side of Torkham, many of them without checkpoints.

Mr Zahid Shinwari, a former chairman of the chamber of commerce for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the Torkham crossing is, said that traders bound for bazaars or families visiting relatives had thought little of the frontier and were used to passing without paperwork checks. Those informal routes have now been closed, forcing all traffic through controlled border crossings.

NYTIMES