Pakistan deploys Army on Afghan border fearing 'uncontrollable refugee influx' amid crisis

After the Taliban’s declaration that it now controls 90 per cent, approximately 2,640 km border with Afghanistan, Pakistan on Saturday scrambled to deploy army troops on the front line position citing the threat of violence, uncontrollable refugee influx and ‘worsening’ volatile border situation. The army troops replaced the paramilitary, Frontier Constabulary, (FC), Levies Force, Rangers and other forces along the Pak-Afghan border, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the local press reporters.

“Now regular army troops are manning the border after replacing the paramilitary forces,” he told a presser on July 24, adding that the army will be able to take control of the illegal border crossing and the smuggling. 

This comes after the US top general confirmed the Taliban takeover saying the terror outfit seems to have 'strategic momentum’ in the conflict-ridden territory after the US Army and coalition troops pulled out. US joint chiefs of staff General Mark Milley told a briefing that as the US-led foreign forces withdrew, the militancy in Afghanistan gained resurgence and was now pressurising half of the country's provincial capitals, seizing the key border crossings.

Pakistan shares the longest border with Afghanistan which is now witnessing terrorism and refugee spillover. Pakistan’s national security adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf meanwhile told state reporters that there were threats of banned terror outfits like the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) entering the borders in disguise of refugees. This may uptick regional terrorism. 

[Pakistani troops head for deployment. Credit: AP]

Taliban claims to have gained control of the Chaman border in Balochistan and Torkham in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, both of which are the key borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Military spokesperson Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar meanwhile is claiming that the Pakistan army manning the border may establish “effective border management.” It is to be noted that Pakistan has housed 3 million Afghan refugees since 1979, but it cannot take more due to limited resources, says Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. 

Pakistan educates Afghanistan on 'how to deal' with terrorism issues

Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told broadcaster Dawn that the current situation [in Afghanistan] demands that regular military troops deploy along the border, although without condemning Taliban as he said that Pakistan will not take any side and has “no favourites”. Ahmed further educated Afghanistan’s government on terrorism saying that the Afghan politicians and their military must “learn how to deal with these issues.” The country had earlier distanced itself from condemning the Taliban’s terror activities and its regional takeover saying that Pakistan was ‘not a guarantor’ of Afghan peace. Pakistan had been providing treatment to Taliban terrorists at the makeshift hospitals near the Chaman border, foreign correspondents at the scene have reported. Afghan vice-president Amrullah Saleh accused the Pakistani military of providing "close air support to Taliban in certain areas".