THE recent closure and subsequent reopening of the Torkham border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan must be seen in the wider of context of the two neighbours’ historical tensions over the Durand Line, the international boundary between the two countries. The Durand Line stretches over some 2,250 kilometres of mountainous and flat terrain. In the northwest it divides Pakistan’s tribal areas and Afghan territory. Here the ‘line’ is about 460 km long. Its demarcation began in 1893 under Afghan ruler Abdur Rehman and Sir Mortimer Durand, a state official in British India. The Durand agreement was reaffirmed by Abdur Rehman’s…