<h1 class="ql-align-center">Durand Line</h1> <h2>Context:</h2> <ul><li>Recently, the Taliban has said that&nbsp;Afghans oppose the fence erected by Pakistan along the Durand Line.</li></ul> <h2>About:</h2> <ul><li>Durand Line is the 2,670-kilometer-long international land border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.</li></ul> <ul><li>The agreement demarcating the Durand Line was signed on November 12, 1893, between the British civil servant Sir Henry Mortimer Durand and Amir Abdur Rahman, then the Afghan ruler.</li></ul> <ul><li>The line cut through Pashtun tribal areas on both sides of the border.</li></ul> <ul><li>The line stretches from Afghanistan's border with Iran.</li></ul> <h2>Cross Border Tensions:</h2> <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">With independence in 1947,&nbsp;Pakistan inherited the Durand Line, and with it also the Pashtun rejection of the line, and Afghanistan’s refusal to recognise it.</li></ul> <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Afghanistan was the only country to vote against Pakistan joining the United Nations in 1947.</li></ul> <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">‘Pashtunistan’, an independent country of the Pashtuns&nbsp;was a demand made by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan at the time of Partition, although he later resigned himself to the reality of Partition.</li></ul> <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Pakistan believes that in the new situation in Afghanistan, the&nbsp;fence will help control any spillover from unrest and chaos there.</li></ul>