Uproar over Taliban barring Pakistan from fencing border

New Delhi, Dec 24 Raza Rabbani, a former Chairman of Pakistan Senate and a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader, on Friday questioned the government's haste to extend support to the Afghan Taliban, when the latter did "not even recognise the border", Dawn news reported.

Addressing a Senate session, Rabbani asked Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi to take Parliament into confidence about a recent incident in which the new rulers in Afghanistan had reportedly barred Pakistan's security forces from fencing the border.

Pakistani officials have not commented on the incident so far.

Pakistan has fenced most of the 2,600 km border des­pite protests from Kabul, which has contested the British-era boundary demarcation that splits families and tribes on either side.

Afghan Defence Mnistry spokesman Enayatullah Khwarazmi had said the Taliban forces stopped the Pakistani military from erecting what he called an "illegal" border fence along with the eastern province of Nangarhar on Sunday.

The fencing was the main reason behind the souring of relations between previous US-backed Afghan governments and Islamabad.

The current standoff indicates the issue remains a contentious matter for the Taliban, despite its close ties to Islamabad, the report said.

"They are not ready to recognise the border, so why are we moving forward?" Rabbani questioned during the session on Friday.

The PPP Senator also expressed alarm over reports that the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was regrouping in Afghanistan, "which could possibly fuel terrorism in Pakistan".

"On what terms is the state talking about a ceasefire with the banned group?" he questioned.

He went on to say that the state of Pakistan meant the civil and military bureaucracy of Pakistan and not the people sitting in Parliament.

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