DUSHANBE, March 16, 2015, Asia-Plus – Afghan border guards consider that concerns of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha about the Afghan-Tajik border security are “baseless.”
Radio Liberty citied Commander of the Afghan Border Police (ABP), Lieutenant-General Mohammad Shafiq Fazli, as saying that a five-day operation carried out by Afghan security forces Imam Sahib and Dashti Archi districts of Kunduz province had been successful and armed militants had been annihilated.
According him, agreements reached between Afghanistan and Tajikistan provide for carrying out joint operations in case of threat of breakthrough over the Afghan-Tajik border. “Under an agreement between our countries, we carry out a joint operation in case of necessity,” said ABP commander. “Currently, there no any problems between Afghanistan and Tajikistan on their common border.”
Mohammad Shafiq Fazli further added that no country has the right to carry out military operation in Afghan territory without coordination with Afghan authorities.
We will recall that the CSTO Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha says that CSTO’s military forces could be at the Tajik-Afghan border within three days if a conflict broke out there.
Speaking at a press conference in Dushanbe, late on March 13, Nikolay Bordyuzha said CSTO forces could repel any threat emanating from the Afghan side of the border.
Bordyuzha said Russia is not looking to create a “second front in Tajikistan, but [Russia] would never permit the security of a CSTO member to be in doubt.”
Bordyuzha is one of several Russian officials who have regularly warned Central Asian states about the dangers of militant groups in Afghanistan.
The CSTO, comprised of Tajikistan, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, has been helping Tajikistan strengthen its defenses along the Afghan border.
The Afghan Border Police (ABP) secure Afghanistan”s 5,529 kilometers border with neighboring countries and all its international airports. It also administers immigration services such as checking documents of foreigners entering the country or deporting them. The ABP”s anti-narcotic efforts are a prominent concern to the international community at present. The ABP and the regular Afghan National Police jointly patrol a 55 km-wide corridor along the entirety of Afghanistan”s border, particularly the longest and porous Durand Line border in the southeast with neighboring Pakistan.
The ABP falls under the command of the Afghan National Police (ANP) which is under the administrative control of the Ministry of the Interior. The ABP is headquartered in Kabul. The Afghan Border Police reportedly divides command of its 23,000 police force across 6 zones to protect 14 Border Crossing Points and 5 Major Airports.
