PESHAWAR: Two personnel of the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) went missing on Tuesday near the Pak-Afghan Torkham border area in the Khyber tribal region.

Sources in the political administration confirmed that the two personnel had gone missing. They also suspect that the missing personnel may have crossed the border into Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, security forces and the political administration launched a search operation in the area to trace the missing men.

The development comes amid tensions between the Afghan and Pakistani border forces over the construction of a footpath and fence on the Pakistani side of the Durand line.

Read: Torkham border closed again

The Durand Line was drawn up by the British in 1893 to delineate the boundary between what was then British India and the Kingdom of Afghanistan.

After 1947, it became the internationally-recognised border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, although the Afghan government does not recognise it.

Khyber is one of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous regions governed by tribal laws and lies near the Afghan border. The Taliban and other Al Qaeda-linked groups who stage attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan are also known to have strongholds in the zone.

Pakistan's military is conducting an operation named Khyber I in the region to combat militants there.