Abdullah Azzam, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, has disclosed that Pakistani officials in 2021 urged the Taliban leadership to allow the extension of barbed wire fencing along the disputed Durand Line.
He said the request was made on June 3, 2021, during intra-Afghan talks in Doha, when members of Pakistan’s delegation raised the matter directly with the Taliban’s negotiating team.
According to Izzam, senior Pakistani official Faiz Hameed urged the Taliban to prevent armed clashes as Pakistani forces worked to extend the barbed-wire in the Bahramcha district of Helmand province. In response, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar told him: “I am responsible for political affairs. This issue falls under the military, and they will respond in their own language (through gunfire).”
Izzam added that although the Taliban was then engaged in conflict with several countries, it also chose to confront Pakistan over the barbed-wire. He noted that Taliban fighters blocked the project in Helmand, even though the previous republican government had permitted the fence to be extended along the entire line.