JALALABAD, July 7: A recent deployment of Pakistani troops to the eastern Afghan border has angered the area’s powerful Mohmand Pashtun tribe, which has accused Pakistan of a major incursion into Afghanistan and called for immediate action by Kabul.
During a US military operation last month in the Afghan border province of Nangarhar, Pakistan deployed around 2,000 soldiers on the opposite frontier in the tribal zone.
“Pakistani soldiers remained in place after the American troops left. They have installed at least eight posts on the frontier and in Afghan territory,” a tribal elder told AFP in the provincial capital Jalalabad.
Representatives from the eastern province have also accused Pakistan of intruding up to 40 kilometres into Afghanistan in Lal Pur and Goshta districts.
None of the claims have been independently verified.
The Mohmands, who live on both sides of the frontier, have attempted to oppose the alleged Pakistani advance but have no heavy weaponry.
For the Mohmands, the arrival of the Pakistani army at the heart of their tribal territory is an attack on their interests. The tribe profits from lucrative cross-border trade which includes drugs, arms, cars and electronic equipment.
With around 300,000 members — 100,000 in Afghanistan and 200,000 on the Pakistani side — the Mohmands control the main cross-border routes and smuggling between the countries.
Much of the eastern Afghanistan-Pakistan border passes through rugged mountain territory and is poorly defined on the ground. Islamabad has repeatedly rejected accusations that its forces have intruded into Afghan territory.
Kabul has sent a high-ranking team of defence and interior ministry officials to the border “to assess probable violation (of the border) by Pakistani troops and report to the government,” President Hamid Karzai’s press office said at the weekend.—AFP
