Wakhan: A Strategic Gambit

Strategic vulnerabi-lities of the Wakhan Corridor, offer India a perfect geopoli-tical lever to counterba-lance Beijing’s regional ambitions.

Recently, social and digital media in Pakistan and India have been abuzz with claims of Pakistan forcefully annexing the Wakhan Corridor to secure a land route to Central Asia. It coincided with Pakistan security forces’ counter-terrorism actions across Pak-Afghan border and subsequent border skirmishes, triggering an intense debate among policy circles in the regional states including India. In a somewhat delayed response, Pakistan’s foreign office finally rejected these conjectures. Nevertheless, the region’s geopolitical and geo-economic importance, rumors regarding Pakistan annexing Wakhan, and kinetic actions against TTP inside Afghanistan are interlinked.

The northeastern tip of Afghanistan, Wakhan, a narrow elongated geographical terrain (approx 16-64 Km wide) connects it with China in the East, while wedging Pakistan’s direct ground link with Tajikistan towards its north. Pakistan’s Chitral and Gilgit Baltistan region is located towards the south of the Wakhan strip. This strategic positioning makes it a focal point for regional geopolitical maneuvering, with each country seeking to enhance its influence in Central Asia. From China-Pakistan perspective, Wakhan is an extremely important area in the context of their respective national security and economic interests. Lately, China has displayed interest in developing new infrastructure through the Wakhjir Pass, building on the centuries-old ‘Silk Route’. The railway line between China and Afghanistan, first established in 2016, links these two countries through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Keen to integrate Afghanistan into its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China views the Wakhan Corridor as a means to enhance its economic prowess in the region and beyond. The Wakhan corridor could facilitate direct trade routes bypassing costlier pathways through Pakistan or Uzbekistan, thereby consolidating China’s economic foothold in Afghanistan. China is also worried about the radicalization of Uyghur Muslims in its western region linked to Wakhan corridor. With the Taliban consolidating control over Afghanistan, Beijing’s concern regarding the possible influx of armed militants into China is not entirely misplaced. Such strategic vulnerabilities of the Wakhan Corridor, offer India a perfect geopolitical lever to counterbalance Beijing’s regional ambitions.

For Pakistan, Wakhan corridor is critical for the similar reasons. Security being foremost and the primary driver has triggered ongoing debate over the corridor within Pakistan’s intelligentsia. There have been reports of TTP and ISKP using a long and treacherous route through Wakhan to infiltrate Pakistan to carry out terror activities, especially in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. Within the regional ambit, trade between Pakistan and Central Asian states has suffered tremendously due to turmoil in Afghanistan, lack of well-developed infrastructure, and added cost due to the absence of direct road link.

Central Asian states could benefit from direct access to Gwadar seaport via Wakhan, offering the shortest trade route to the Middle East and beyond boosting regional mercantile economy but growing tensions between Pakistan and Kabul have emerged as a strategic impediment to this trade potential challenging regional security. Rider clause remains that Pakistan has no expansionist designs and would never like to annex any part of Afghanistan due to a number of reasons, ranging from geopolitical complexities to legal concerns. Pakistan alone can’t change the regional geography as this particular area also borders China and Tajikistan. Changing boundaries unilaterally, without a multi-lateral agreement, challenges established diplomatic norms. Any unilateral attempt of capturing Wakhan would mean severing the ground line of communication between its ally China, and Afghanistan. It can potentially trigger a high-level and volatile military conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan; something both cannot afford.

The Indian latent role in building narrative around Wakhan can’t be ruled out. The Indian mainstream media went into a frenzy over these unsubstantiated news reports and started portraying Pakistan as an aggressor. Pakistan’s counter terrorism operations were made to be believed as aggressive actions against the State of Afghanistan. Though nothing can be farther from the truth, but the thrust of this Indian media onslaught was aimed at hitting Pak-Afghan and Pak-China bilateral relations for obvious reasons.

Since 2001, India has been creating security challenges for Pakistan using Afghan soil. Post US withdrawal in August 2021, India had to substantially reduce its presence in Afghanistan but after Pak-Afghan tensions over TTP’s continued attacks, India got new impetus to regain lost foothold in Kabul. Loud diplomatic efforts backed by aggressive media campaign and the recent hoopla about Pakistan capturing Wakhan perfectly serves Indian strategy. By portraying Pakistan as an aggressor amid already tense bilateral ties between Islamabad and Kabul, India tried pushing forward its strategic gambit of weaving the same ties with Taliban, it once had with Karzai regime. India is fully aware of Taliban’s long standing view on Durand Line, who despite diplomatic relations back in 1990s, never recognized Pak-Afghan border. Furthermore, Pakistan has not much to gain from annexing this harsh and treacherous piece of land where infrastructure needs to be built from almost scratch for any meaningful trade activity between Pakistan, Tajikistan, and other Central Asian ‘Stans’.

Lastly, annexing such a land, offers a complex military logistical challenge as well. Forward deployed forces would require constant supply which can be a serious challenge during winter when temperature fall below freezing point and the passes are blocked due to heavy snowfall.

Although Pakistan’s foreign office has cleared the clutter over this issue but it must be reiterated particularly in international media as part of diplomatic efforts towards fostering closer relations with Afghanistan despite challenges. From Pakistan’s perspective, counter-terrorism operations inside Afghanistan must be backed by carefully crafted media strategy; else these efforts could be exploited by hostile entities to cultivate more terrorism on Afghan soil targeting Pakistan. Media strategy must strike a balance between outright sensationalism and self-defeating cynicism.

Farzana Shah
The writer is a Peshawar based Journalist and can be reached at janashah.journalist@gmail.com

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