By Aamir Latif and Shadi Khan Saif

ISLAMABAD/KABUL, Afghanistan

Pakistan is digging a 480km trench along part of its porous border with Afghanistan in an effort to prevent smugglers and militants from crossing into its territory, Pakistani officials said.

“The total length of the trench will be 480km, of which 450km has been completed while the remaining 30km will be completed by October 1,” Khan Wasay, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, said.

“The foremost objective of the trench is to counter the cross-border infiltration and flow of drugs and smugglers into [the Pakistan province of] Baluchistan.”

However, the trench is causing disquiet in Afghanistan, where the upper house of the Afghan parliament, the Masherano Jirga, has called on security and intelligence officials to present their views on the development.

Many Afghans see the trench as an illegitimate attempt by Pakistan to encroach on their territory.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 2,640km border, known as the Durand Line after the British civil servant that engineering the 1893 treaty recognizing the demarcation between Afghanistan and British-ruled India. The border is disputed by Afghanistan.

Cross-border infiltration by militants is a contentious issue between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with both governments alleging that fighters conduct cross-border raids on their territory before returning to safe havens.

“We want to check incursions of terrorists and smugglers into Pakistan and the trenches will help control the situation along the Afghan border,” Colonel Faheem Babar, Commandant of the Qila Saifullah Scouts, told Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper.

Hundreds of laborers have been toiling on the trench, which is 2.5m deep and 3m wide, since May.

Afghan politicians have said the trench is an attempt to divide ethnic Pashtuns living on either side of the border, who cross the line on a daily basis.

Parliamentary Speaker Abdul Hadi Muslimyar said the move by the “Punjabi establishment” was proof of Pakistani interference in Afghanistan’s domestic issues and President Hamid Karzai has formed a committee to investigate the construction.

The trench runs from Chaman to Rabbat and covers the border as it skirts Pakistan’s turbulent Baluchistan province.

Many are skeptical of the value of the trench in curbing cross-border infiltration. “Those who infiltrate into and from [Afghanistan and Pakistan] do not use the normal land routes,” Tahir Khan, an Islamabad-based security analyst, said. “They mostly use mountaineering routes that are not covered by the trench.”

www.aa.com.tr/en