Durand Line
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The Durand Line is the term for the poorly marked 2,640 kilometer (1,610 mile) border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After being defeated in two wars against Afghans, the British succeeded in 1893 in imposing the Durand Line dividing Afghanistan and what was then British India (now the Northern Areas, North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan areas of Pakistan). Named for Sir Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of the British Indian government, it was agreed upon by representatives of both Afghanistan and the British Empire, but deeply resented by the Afghan Emir Abdur Rahman Khan. One of the two representatives of the Afghan government was the Ahmadi Sahibzada Abdul Latif of Khost. The border was drawn intentionally to cut through the Afghan tribes whom the British feared and may have tried to disunite, and today about 28 million Pashtuns are found on the Pakistan side of the line, and perhaps half that amount on the Afghan side.
Afghanistan's loya jirga of 1949 declared the Durand Line invalid as they saw it as ex parte on their side (since British India ceased to exist in 1947 with the independence of Pakistan). This had no tangible effect as there has never been a move to enforce such a declaration. Additionally, world courts have universally upheld uti possidetis juris, i.e, binding bilateral agreements with or between colonial powers are "passed down" to successor independent states, as with most of Africa. A unilateral declaration by one party has no effect; boundary changes must be made bilaterally. Thus, the Durand Line boundary remains in effect today as the international boundary and is recognized as such by nearly all nations. Despite pervasive internet rumors to the contrary, U.S. Dept. of State and the British Foreign Commonwealth Office documents and spokespersons have confirmed that the Durand Line, like virtually all international boundaries, has no expiration date, nor is there any mention of such in any Durand Line documents. (The 1921 treaty expiration refers only to the 1921 agreements.)
The Durand Line is sometimes referred to as the "Zero Line." Excluding the desert portion southwest of 66 degrees 15 minutes east longitude, 84% of the line follows clear physical features (rivers or watershed divides). The precise route of the remaining 16% straight line segments is also quite clearly demarcated from the 1894-95 demarcation reports and subsequent mapping, so the legal location of the line is not in doubt and is quite accurate on readily available mapping such as the detailed (1:50,000 scale) Russian maps of the 1980s.
The Durand Line continues to be a source of tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The September 2005 statements by the Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf calling for the building of a fence delineating the Afghanistan/Pakistan border have been met with opposition from some Pashtun political groups including some Afghans who view the border as illegitimate.
