The 2,640-km-long Durand Line is more than just a frontier. It is a century-old scar on the map of South Asia – a scar that has bled into three Anglo-Afghan wars, the Cold War, the Taliban’s rise, and today’s great power rivalries. For the Afghan Pashtun, this line is not history. It is daily life. It was in 1893 that Mortimer Durand forced Abdur Rahman Khan to accept a division of his territory. This act tore apart the Pashtun tribal belt, splitting families and communities. Though the agreement was meant to define zones of influence, the British treated it as a permanent international border.

When Pakistan inherited this border in 1947, Afghanistan rejected it. Kabul had urged Britain to relinquish the agreement before leaving India. When the British refused, Afghanistan became the only

See Full Page