ISPR spokesman says army’s target is to complete fence by end of 2018

ISLAMABAD: Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor has said that almost 92 percent of the 2,611-kilometre frontier with Afghanistan will be fenced by end of 2018, the Voice of America (VOA) reported on Saturday.

The military-led construction effort went into action earlier this year. It has already fenced off about a 150-kilometre portion of the border identified as highly prone to infiltration. The pair of nine-foot wire fences, with a six-foot gap, and topped with barbed wire, runs along rugged terrain and snow-capped mountains as high as 12,000 feet.

Officials estimate the project will cost about $550 million. “Our target is to complete the fence by end of 2018,” Ghafoor said and explained the plan intends to cover up to 2,400 kilometres of the entire Afghan border because the rest cannot possibly be fenced.

Additional outposts and small forts are also being built and being equipped with high-tech surveillance systems to enable soldiers to monitor and detect intrusions around the clock. “On the average, every 1.5 to 2 kilometres will have the physical presence of our soldiers,” he said, adding the army has also recruited tens of thousands of new troops for the deployment.

Afghanistan opposed the fencing project but Pakistan rejected the objections and was pressing ahead with the border fencing, insisting the project is critical for national security and for promoting peace and stability in the area. Pakistani officials also said that anti-state militants after fleeing security operations have taken refuge in Afghan border areas and plot terrorist attacks against the country from those sanctuaries.

Ghafoor said that military-to-military coordination has improved since the Pakistan Army chief visited Kabul in October and held detailed talks with President Ashraf Ghani. “We have shared through our Foreign Office a comprehensive action plan document with Afghanistan and subsequent action on this plan will lead to further improvement,” he added.

Last month, Islamabad shared with Kabul what it called an Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Solidarity (APAPS) for a constructive and meaningful engagement between the two countries. The proposed plan would create working groups in politics, economics, the military, intelligence sharing, and issues related to Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

The military spokesman said that no anti-Afghanistan sanctuaries are present in Pakistan following major counterterrorism operations in the past three years. But he complained that a large number of the Afghan refugees in the country were blocking efforts to completely eliminate the threat.

“I can assure you the day these 2.7-million Afghan refugees go back to their country, our liberty of action will expand to trace the left-over facilitators and abettors,” he said while responding to so-called US criticism. He said that investigations in connection with recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan have led officials to conclude that planners were located on the Afghan side of the border.