AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: THE POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DURAND LINE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP08C01297R000100140003-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 20
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 3, 1978
• Content Type: REPORT

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I NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONALS
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: THE POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE
BUREflU Of
IDTEELIGEDCE
ROD RESfflRCH
Summary
The recurring crises in Afghan-Pakistani rela-
tions since the partition of British India in 1947
have usually involved conflicts over the status of
peoples divided by the "Durand Line." The British
established the Durand Line by treaty with the
ruler of Afghanistan in 1593 as a "demarcation of
spheres of influence"; it has since come to be
generally e ogxized.as the international boundary
between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Durand Line bisects the Pathan* ethnic
homeland--that area termed "Pushtunistan" by
ethnic nationalists (see Map 1). Periodic Afghan
efforts to reunite the divided tribes in some
fashion have repeatedly been rejected by Pakistan
in squabbles that have come to be known as the
Pushtunistan dispute.
The Afghans formerly ruled much of the terri-
tory that, since 1947, has constituted Pakistan's
Northwest Frontier Province. Current Afghan feel-
ings on the issue are based on irredentist ambi-
tions on the part of some Afghans, a rejection of
the Durand Line treaties which Afghans say were
forced on a weak Afghan ruler, an extreme sensi-
tivity to the political power of the Pathans in
Afghanistan, and indignation at perceived mis-
treatment of the minority Pathans in Pakistan.
By rejecting the
legiti
macy of
the line, the
Afghan Government hop
es some
how to
foster
the
independence or auton
omy of
ethnic
kinsmen
in
Pakistan and thereby
win the
favor
of its
own
majority Pathan tribe
smen.
The Pakistanis
have
Also known as Pushtun or Pakhtoon.
GDS-1, 2, 3
WARNING NOTICE
SENSITIVE INTELLIGENCE SOURCES
AND METHODS INVOLVED
Report No. 1066
October 3, 1978
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1J .W % ~ 1
rejected the Afghan position as interference in their
internal affairs. The resulting dispute, which has flared
up at least five times in the past 30 years, has been
marked by hostile propaganda, border closures, economic
disruptions, military skirmishes, and severance of diplo-
matic relations.
The crises have nearly always been precipitated by an
Afghan perception that Pakistan is mistreating the Pathans
within its borders. Pakistan's moves to exert counter-
pressure on Afghanistan by shutting off the vital trade
routes through Karachi to landlocked Afghanistan have usually
resulted in Kabul's turning to Moscow. The Soviets promptly
deliver aid, thereby strengthening their influence in
Afghanistan.
The US publicly recognized the Durand Line as Pakistan's
international boundary in 1956 and has privately taken the
same position with the Pakistani and Afghan Governments in
1950, 1960, and 1978. US policy has been one of encouraging
bilateral discussions between the two countries in the
interests of regional harmony and stability.
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Summary ................................................. i-ii
History of the Area Prior to 1947 ....................... 1
The Pathan Homeland: Inaccessible, Ungovernable..... 1
Afghan Empires Extend Over "Greater Pushtunistan".... 1
British Strategic Interest in Creating a Boundary.... 3
Drawing Up the Durand Line ........................... 3
Political History of Afghan-Pakistani Disputes:
1947-Present ......................................... 5
Partition and the Accession of Tribal Territories
to Pakistan ....................................... 5
The Afghan Position .................................. 6
The Pakistani Position ............................... 9
Periods of Stress: 1950-51, 1955, 1960-61,
1973, 1978 ........................................ 9
The US Position ...................................... 15
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Pathan Areas and Afghan Claims in Pakistan
Fbyzoabad
Qon u ' oia oQan r
n ? 1 Ti4F adakhsh a
M4zar-e S ar ?
(O /J - ' 8a chlan ~:
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Bamiano11
hover oa
J Lowgai
'
brII ~Oruzgan G)Vazni
t" C rs Clan RI I S -r Jn AI
kl
r
p
\Bolan Pass
PAKIST~N
small
Chan
d i sr
~IS~Sm
Ras I ,sue = , i . I n ,.
_J Predominantly Pathan
(Pashtun) areas
Pushtunistan
(section of Pakistan
claimed by Afghanistan
National capital
o Province capital
International boundary
Province boundary
0 100 200 kilometers
0 100 200 miles
3091 8-/8 STATE(RGE)
ARABIAN
SEA
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History of the Area Prior to 1947
The Pathan Homeland: Inaccessible, Un overnable. On
either side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border Iles a moun-
tainous, undeveloped area inhabited by the Pathans (see
Map 1, opposite), a group of tribes speaking a common lan-
guage called Pushtu or Pukhtu. As frontier dwellers since
the Achaemenid empire in the sixth century B.C., Pathans
have historically ignored boundaries and continued their
traditional patterns of migration, trade, and warfare.
Of an estimated 11 million Pathans at the time of par-
tition in 1947, about 5 million lived in undivided India,
mainly in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) in Settled
("Administered") Districts or in Political Agencies (also
called Tribal Territories) close to the border. Under
British rule, the tribes in the Political Agencies were sub-
ject to the political. control of the Provincial Governor but
generally managed their own internal affairs and strongly
resisted British efforts to change the hill country into a
"settled" area. The British used allowances to obtain the
loyalty of tribal chieftains, fought endless skirmishes,
and stationed up to 40,000 regular troops in the NWFP.
Despite these efforts, some areas in the Political Agencies
were always off limits to British officials and essentially
impervious to British law.
The tribes on the Afghanistan side of the Durand Line
have been equally difficult to govern. Afghan governmepts,
like their British (and Pakistani) counterparts, have also
resorted to subsidies for tribal allegiance; intrigues and
rebellions have been commonplace.
Afghan Empires Extend Over "Greater Pushtunistan."
Afghan interest in Pus tun areas dates from the 11t century,
probably because the Amirs of Afghanistan were Pushtuns.
(Although the Pushtuns constituted a minority of the popula-
tion, the other tribal groups--Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkomans, and
Hazaras--were so fragmented that the Pushtun plurality was
able to retain its authority.) The Pushtun Amirs actually
ruled the NWFP from 1747 to 1834. Peshawar was their winter
capital and remains the cultural capital of the Pushtuns/
Pathans (Kabul itself lies in a Persian-speaking area). The
last King of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, and the late President
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Pathan tribesmen such as these (circa 1877) have changed little in the past 100 years.
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Mohammad Daoud were descendants of the last Afghan governor
of Peshawar.
Even after the Pathan homeland was divided, Pathans on
the British side of the Durand Line retained influence in
Afghanistan. For instance, in 1929 a Pushtun/Pathan armed
expedition removed an unpopular Afghan Amir and put its own
candidate on the throne. (President Nur Mohammad Taraki is
also a Pushtun but not of the royal clan.)
British Strategic Interest in Creating a Boundary. The
UK fought two wars with Afghanistan (1838-42 and 1878-80) in
an.attempt to counter Russian designs on the area. From
1843 to 1896, through a series of military excursions,
treaties, and annexations, the British gradually seized con-
trol of what is now Pakistan and established the NLVFP in
1895. By the end of the period, the anti-British intrigues
of the Amir of Afghanistan with the frontier tribesmen had
led the UK to seek demarcation of spheres of influence in
tribal territory.
The British wanted to:
--facilitate the governing of the border regions;
--stop the raiding parties and "outrages" of Afghan
tribes;
--establish control over the mountain passes into British
India; and
--create a stable buffer state between British dominions
and tsarist Russia.
Accordingly, in 1893 Abdur Rahman Khan, an Afghan Amir
who was anxious to stop British expansion into tribal areas
and whose position had been weakened by internal revolt,
accepted a treaty demarcating British and Afghan "spheres of
influence." The treaty provided that a boundary line sur-
veyed by a British mission under Sir Henry Mortimer Durand
would constitute "the frontier of His Highness's dominions"
and that neither government would "exercise interference"
in territories on the other side of the line.
Drawing Up the Durand Line. Attempting to follow the
inaccurate map that accompanied the agreement, mixed commis-
sions demarcated the line in some places and surveyed it in
others in 1894, 1895, and 1896. This boundary, about 1,420
miles long and stretching from Iran to China, for much of
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Afghanistan-Pakistan Boundary
oghol
Gi
Present boundary
-""'-- Apparent boundary
between British India and
Afghanistan according to
the treaty of 1893. (Shown
only where different from
the present boundary)
Area gained by
Afghanistan
pp National capital
Other International
boundary
0 100 200 kilometers
0 100 200 miles
'.Chaman
,\ Boghra Pass
? Quetta
\\Bolan Pass
ARABIAN
SEA
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its length follows the water divide atop a chain of moun-
tains subsidiary to the main Hindu Kush. Between 1893 and
1932, almost 100 border adjustments were made between
British India and Afghanistan. (See Map 2, opposite.)
So many inaccuracies were found in the original maps
and subsequent adjustments that the line was later called
the "apparent boundary between British India and Afghani-
stan." The fghans vaguely reaffirmed the original agree-
ment in treaties with the British in 1905 and 1919, and
in the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 192L (itself reaffirmed in
1930). A supplementary British 1