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Afghan Border Fencing to Be Completed by 2020, Pakistan Says

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD - Pakistan said Tuesday it will have fenced off its
   traditionally porous border with Afghanistan by the end of next year,
   leading to an improved security situation in the region.

   The military-led massive construction program, launched in mid-2017, is
   installing a pair of nearly 3-meter-high chicken wire fences, with a
   2-meter gap between each one, and topped with barbed wire, along the
   nearly 2,600-kilometer border. Additionally, hundreds of new outposts
   and forts have been built or are under construction.

   "We have achieved a lot of progress. I believe we will be able to
   complete the Pak-Afghan border fencing by the end of 2020," Khusro
   Bakhtyar, the Pakistani minister for planning and development, said
   during a Tuesday night news conference in Islamabad.

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