Pakistan flag removed from Durand line by Pashtuns

The Pashtuns living in Afghanistan have removed Pakistan's flag and structures from the Durand line, which demarcates Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan of northern and western Pakistan from the northeastern and southern provinces of Afghanistan.

In Khost, the local people, including Pashtuns living near Jaji Maidan province, have removed Pakistani flag and structures from the 2,430-kilometre (1,510 mi) international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Earlier, the spokesman for the Ministry of Afghanistan Foreign Affairs, Shekib Mustaghni, had said that any decision on the Durand Line will need to be made by the people living on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan de facto border.

Mustaghni noted that Pakistani military violated the de facto border with countless incursions into Nangarhar, Kunar, Khost, Paktia, Zabul and Kandahar provinces.

He also said that incursions by the Pakistani army across the Durand Line were unacceptable and the security forces and the Afghan government were ready to defend the country's sovereignty if action across the line continued.

According to him, Afghanistan had lodged a complaint about the cross Durand Line incursions with the United Nations Security Council.

The Durand Line cuts through the Pashtun tribal areas and further south through the Balochistan region, politically dividing ethnic Pashtuns, as well as the Baloch and other ethnic groups living both sides of the border. Although the Durand Line is recognised internationally as the western border of Pakistan, it remains largely unrecognised in Afghanistan.