Islamabad rejects allegations of conducting 'illegal' Pak-Afghan border fencing

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Work on around 900-kilometre fence along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border had been completed last year in January to stop cross-border attacks. Photo: AFP

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday rejected reports of Pakistan conducting “illegal” fencing of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. 

Rejecting the suggestion that Pakistan Army was conducting “illegal” fencing of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the Foreign Office said that the fencing was being done to address “Pakistan’s serious security concerns and was fully in accordance with the established norms of international law, without encroaching into Afghan territory.”

“The Afghan side would be well-advised to engage on border matters through the relevant institutional mechanisms to address any misconceptions. Regrettably, Pakistan’s suggestion for conducting joint topographic surveys had not been positively responded to by the Afghan side,” it warned.

The Foreign Office reaffirmed that Islamabad respects the territorial integrity of Afghanistan and conducts its relations with the brotherly country as per the principles of the UN Charter and expects reciprocity from the Afghan side.

The Foreign Office’s remarks come after the Afghan Foreign Ministry had rejected Islamabad’s reports of militants operating out of Kabul attacking several border outposts, martyring a paramilitary soldier and “critically” injuring two others, reported Voice of America.

The Afghan foreign ministry, while rejecting the charges, had said that “being a victim of terrorism, Afghanistan would not allow any terrorist group to use its territory against Pakistan or other countries.”

Work on around 900-kilometre fence along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border had been completed last year in January to stop cross-border attacks.

In a statement, the ISPR had said that work on the construction of 233 forts and fencing of 802 kilometres of top priority areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border had been completed, while the construction of forts and the fencing of a total of 2,611 kilometres continues along the Pak-Afghan border.

It had added that work on 233 of 843 forts, and 802 of 1,200 kilometres of top priority areas had been completed.