Pak official says border fencing issue with Taliban resolved

Pakistan and Afghan Taliban authorities have resolved the recent row over border fencing by agreeing that further fencing would be done through consensus, Pakistani media reported citing a senior official.

"It has been decided at a senior level that fencing-related issues would in the future be dealt with through mutual agreement," Dawn quoted the official as saying.

This comes after tensions erupted on Durand Line -- a 2,670-kilometre international land border between the countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan--after Taliban authorities disrupted border fencing by Pakistan and took away spools of barbed wire.

The Taliban fighters then also warned Pakistani soldiers against resuming fencing.

Pakistan has been fencing the 2600 kilometre long border with Afghanistan since 2017 to end terrorist infiltration and smuggling. Afghanistan has strongly opposed the move.

Fencing has been a contentious issue in Pakistan-Afghanistan ties because the Afghans dispute the border demarcation done during the colonial period.

Pakistan, however, insists that the line separating the two countries, also called Durand Line, is the valid international border.

The official said 90 per cent of the fencing had been completed. A large part of the fence has been constructed in inhospitable terrain and in some places at very high altitudes. The fencing is expected to be completed at a cost of about USD 500 million.

The issue in the past had also resulted in fatal clashes between the troops of the two countries.

( With inputs from ANI )

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