Abstract

Conflict Beyond the Indus

Sparks are flying between Kabul and Karachi over the future of the Pathan region separating Afghanistan from Pakistan. In recent weeks relations between the two countries have deteriorated to a startling extent. There is even a hint that unless the dispute is settled by adjustments on both sides peace in this part of the world may be imperiled. Whatever may be the merits of the dispute, it is not of recent origin. Afghanistan claims on the authority- of recorded history that the present demarcation of Pathan territory to include both the Northwest Frontier Province and the tribal areas of Waziristan is barely more than a century old. It was the result of successive Afghan wars with Britain during the nineteenth century and was never accepted by Afghanistan as a permanent arrangement.