Pakistan and Afghanistan: the north-western frontier

Detail

1. Pakistan: from one land to two countries

• Partition (1947) means British India was split into two countries, India and Pakistan. Until then, Pakistan was part of India.
• Pakistan was founded on a religious basis.
• Wars and conflict have kept relations from becoming normal:
• wars in 1948, 1965 and 1971
• the Kargil conflict (1999)

• terrorism supported by the Pakistan army.

• Shared heritage across the border:

• the Katas Raj temple complex in Pakistan's Punjab
• the Hinglaj Mata Mandir in Balochistan
• many Sikh shrines, including Kartarpur (see below).

2. The India–Pakistan border: length and states

• The India–Pakistan border is about 3,323 km long.
• It runs along five Indian units. From south-west to north they are:

Order (south-west → north)	Indian state / UT	Kind of line on this stretch
1	Gujarat	International Border (IB). The Sir Creek stretch is disputed
2	Rajasthan	IB (Thar Desert)
3	Punjab	IB
4	Jammu and Kashmir (UT)	IB in the Jammu stretch, then the LoC
5	Ladakh (UT)	LoC, then the Siachen area beyond NJ9842

• The border appears in NCERT Class 7, Fig. 2.5.

3. The three lines: Radcliffe Line, LoC and the Siachen area

Radcliffe Line

• It is the boundary line drawn by Sir Cyril Radcliffe and announced on 17 August 1947, two days after Independence.
• It divided two provinces, Punjab in the west and Bengal in the east.

• This makes it the base of both the India–Pakistan border and today's India–Bangladesh border.

• From Gujarat to Jammu it serves as the International Border (IB), a line that both countries accept.

• Most of it is fenced and floodlit.

Line of Control (LoC)

• The LoC is the military control line in Jammu and Kashmir. It is about 740 km long. It is not a legally agreed international border.
• How it came about:
• The war of 1947–48 ended with the Karachi Agreement (1949), which set up a ceasefire line.

• The war of 1971 led to the Simla Agreement (1972), which renamed that line the Line of Control.

• The LoC ends at grid point NJ9842, a map reference in the Karakoram. The line was never drawn on the map north of this point.

Siachen glacier and the Saltoro ridge

• Siachen glacier: about 76 km long, in the eastern Karakoram, north of NJ9842.
• It is one of the world's longest mountain glaciers [7].
• Its meltwater feeds the Nubra river, which joins the Shyok, a tributary of the Indus [7].
• Saltoro ridge: a mountain wall on the western side of the glacier. Its heights look down over the Nubra Valley [8].
• Operation Meghdoot, launched on 13 April 1984 [8]:
• Cause: Pakistan was showing the area as its own on maps ("cartographic aggression") and was letting foreign climbing expeditions into Siachen [8].
• Process: the Indian Air Force flew Army soldiers in and dropped them on the glacier peaks [8].

• Result: India took the main peaks and passes before Pakistan's troops arrived. India has held the glacier and the Saltoro ridge ever since [8].

• It is the world's highest battlefield [9].

• The weather is a bigger killer than the fighting. Avalanches, crevasses and storms caused most of the estimated 2,700 Indian and Pakistani troop deaths after Meghdoot [8].

Line	Origin	Where	Status
Radcliffe Line / IB	Radcliffe Award, 17 Aug 1947	Gujarat → Jammu (also Bengal)	International Border, fenced
LoC (~740 km)	Karachi ceasefire line 1949, renamed by Simla 1972	Jammu and Kashmir, up to NJ9842	Military control line
Siachen area	Operation Meghdoot, April 1984	North of NJ9842, eastern Karakoram	Held by India; Pakistan disputes it

4. Sir Creek: the disputed southern end

• Sir Creek is a 96 km tidal estuary in the Rann of Kachchh marshes, between Gujarat (India) and Sindh (Pakistan).

• A tidal estuary is a river mouth where seawater moves in and out with the tides.

• The dispute is about where the line runs inside the creek:

• India's position is the thalweg principle. The thalweg is the line along the deepest part of the channel, so it puts the boundary in mid-channel.

• Pakistan's position is the east bank, the "green line", which would place the whole creek in Pakistan.

• Why it matters:

• The point where the creek meets the sea sets the starting point of the maritime boundary.

• That starting point decides each country's EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone: the sea zone, up to 200 nautical miles from the coast, where a country controls fishing, oil, gas and other resources).

• The land part of the Rann was settled by the Rann of Kachchh tribunal (1968). The creek itself remains open.

5. Kartarpur Corridor

• The Kartarpur Corridor is a visa-free, permit-based crossing. It lets Indian pilgrims visit a Sikh shrine just inside Pakistan.
• Route: Dera Baba Nanak (Gurdaspur district, Punjab) → Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur (Pakistan). Guru Nanak spent his last 18 years there.
• Agreement: India and Pakistan signed it on 24 October 2019, at Zero Point on the International Boundary, Dera Baba Nanak [4].
• Opening: the Integrated Check Post opened on 9 November 2019, for Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary [5].
• Rules under the 2019 agreement [4]:
• Pilgrims of all faiths may use it, and so may persons of Indian origin, who carry an OCI card with their foreign passport.
• No visa is needed. A valid passport is enough.
• It is open dawn to dusk, and pilgrims return the same day.
• Up to 5,000 pilgrims a day may cross.

• India sends Pakistan the pilgrim list 10 days ahead.

• Status:

• It was closed during Covid-19 and reopened on 17 November 2021 [11].
• India suspended it from 7 May 2025 (verify current).

6. Rivers: the Indus Waters Treaty (1960)

• The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) shares the water of the Indus river system. It was signed in 1960 after nine years of talks [3].
• The World Bank is also a signatory, but its role is limited and procedural [3]. It appoints the experts or arbitrators when asked [3].

Group	Rivers	Given to
Eastern rivers	Ravi, Beas, Satluj	India (full use)
Western rivers	Indus, Jhelum, Chenab	Mainly Pakistan; India has limited use (e.g. run-of-the-river hydropower)

• Three steps for settling quarrels [3]: 1. The Permanent Indus Commission, with one commissioner from each country, handles "questions". 2. A Neutral Expert decides "differences", and the decision is binding. Example: the Baglihar case. 3. A Court of Arbitration decides "disputes". Example: the Kishenganga case.

• Abeyance (April 2025): after the Pahalgam terror attack, India placed the treaty "in abeyance", meaning it is put on hold. It stays on hold "until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism" [2] (verify current).

• Effect: India says it is no longer limited to run-of-the-river designs on the Jhelum and Chenab. It can plan new reservoirs in J&K, Ladakh, Punjab and Haryana [2].

7. Afghanistan: "a land-locked neighbour"

• A land-locked country has no coastline. Afghanistan's sea trade has to pass through other countries.
• Afghanistan once bordered India directly. Pakistan now cuts it off from India.
• Ancient links:
• Uttarapatha was the great northern trade route. It ran from Gandhara through Takshashila, Varanasi and Pataliputra.
• The Kapisha and Zabul kingdoms ruled in this region.

• The Bamiyan Buddhas were giant rock-cut Buddha statues. They were destroyed in 2001.

• India's development projects (Fig. 2.15):

• the Afghan Parliament building
• the Zaranj–Delaram highway: 218 km, completed in 2009. It reaches the Iran border at Zaranj and joins Asian Highway 1 at Delaram.
• The highway gives Afghanistan a road route to the sea through Iran that does not pass through Pakistan.

8. Durand Line and Wakhan Corridor

Durand Line

• The Durand Line is the Afghanistan–Pakistan boundary. It was agreed in 1893 between Amir Abdur Rahman Khan and Sir Mortimer Durand.
• It is about 2,640 km long. Britannica gives about 1,600 miles (2,600 km) [6].
• It first separated British India from the Emirate of Afghanistan. Each side used it to mark its sphere of influence, the area it controlled or protected [6].
• Afghanistan has never fully accepted it.

Wakhan Corridor

• The Wakhan Corridor is a long, thin panhandle of Afghan territory that runs east to touch China.
• It separates Tajikistan in the north from Gilgit-Baltistan (PoK) in the south [6].
• Why it was made: it served as a buffer zone between the Russian (tsarist) and British empires, so that they would not share a border [6][10].
• Why it matters to India: India's claimed 106 km border with Afghanistan lies here, on the PoK side of the corridor.

9. Khyber and Bolan passes: the north-western gateways

• A pass is a low gap through a mountain range.
• Khyber Pass:
• It crosses the Spin Ghar (White Mountains) range, which the Durand Line also passes through [6].
• It links Peshawar (Pakistan) with Kabul (Afghanistan).
• It is broad enough for large armies and has often been the entry point for invaders of the subcontinent [9].

• It is the easiest route between Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent [9].

• Bolan Pass: lies near Quetta (Balochistan). It was the second historic gateway for invasion and trade.

• NCERT Class 11 (Ch. 1) names both passes as the routes that linked India with the lands to the north-west.

Pass	Range / location	Links
Khyber	Spin Ghar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa	Peshawar ↔ Kabul
Bolan	Near Quetta, Balochistan	Indus plains ↔ Kandahar side

Prelims Hooks

• The India–Pakistan border (~3,323 km) touches Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, J&K and Ladakh. It does not touch Himachal Pradesh.
• The Radcliffe Line was announced on 17 August 1947, not 15 August. It divided Punjab and Bengal.
• LoC: started as the Karachi ceasefire line (1949) and was renamed by the Simla Agreement (1972). It ends at NJ9842.
• Siachen glacier → Nubra → Shyok → Indus. It lies in the eastern Karakoram, not the Himalaya.
• Operation Meghdoot was launched on 13 April 1984 to take the Saltoro ridge.
• Sir Creek: a 96 km tidal estuary between Gujarat and Sindh. India backs the thalweg (mid-channel) principle; Pakistan backs the east bank.
• IWT 1960: eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Satluj) went to India; western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) mainly to Pakistan. Trap: the Chenab is a western river.
• Kartarpur Corridor: Dera Baba Nanak (Gurdaspur) ↔ Gurdwara Darbar Sahib. Opened 9 November 2019, with up to 5,000 pilgrims a day.
• Durand Line (1893) = Afghanistan–Pakistan border. The Wakhan Corridor lies between Tajikistan and PoK and touches China.
• Khyber Pass: Spin Ghar range, Peshawar–Kabul. Bolan Pass: near Quetta.

Mains Points

• Boundaries left unsettled by colonial and post-war lines:
• The Radcliffe Line, the LoC (1949/1972) ending at NJ9842, the thalweg question in Sir Creek and the Durand Line were all drawn in a hurry or left incomplete.
• The results are the Siachen standoff, maritime and EEZ quarrels with fishermen's arrests, and Afghanistan–Pakistan tension.

• This makes a good GS-I example of how political boundaries create regional problems.

• Siachen as a high-altitude environmental problem:

• Glacier terrain and weather killed more soldiers than fighting did (~2,700 deaths) [8].

• Troops, fuel and waste put heavy stress on a fragile glacier that feeds the Nubra–Shyok rivers.

• Water as a strategic resource:

• The IWT's split into eastern and western rivers limited India to run-of-the-river projects on the Jhelum and Chenab.
• The April 2025 abeyance opens the way to storage projects in J&K and Ladakh [2].

• This raises GS-III questions of irrigation, hydropower and how upstream and downstream countries share water.

• Connectivity around a blocked land route:

• Pakistan blocks India's land access to Afghanistan.
• India built the Zaranj–Delaram highway (2009) through Iran and Asian Highway 1 to get around this.
• The corridor diplomacy of Kartarpur shows how border crossings can serve cultural and religious ties even when relations are poor.