On July 27th, the Afghani social media circles were abuzz with a video showing the Taliban forces destroying a pillar having Pakistani signs (pillars with the words “Pakistan 2021”). This incident reportedly happened near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border along the Wakhan district of Badakshan, not far from the Chinese boundary. Earlier reports suggested that the Pakistani army had occupied close to 400 meters of land inside Afghanistan’s territory, including a small river, a charge later denied by the Taliban regime.

The incident comes close on the heels of the Afghanistan government denying reports of them reaching an agreement with Pakistan over the Wakhan corridor and the boundary lines surrounding that.

#Taliban fighters destroy border pillar installed by #Pakistan; Video goes viral pic.twitter.com/cm7RVNNti1

With growing Chinese concerns over radicalisation among Uyghurs in its western region and rise of Taliban in its neighbourhood, the visual evidence of Pakistan made border markings being taken down by the Taliban raises questions about the future of the narrow corridor.

Wakhan is a remote district in the hilly Badakhshan province, which is 217 miles long and less than 9 miles wide and in between northeastern Afghanistan and Central Asia and ends with the narrow border between Afghanistan and China, which is only 47 miles long. The Hindukush Mountain range to the west and the Karakorum mountains to the south encircle Wakhan. The district borders Tajikistan to the north, Pakistan to the south, and China to the northeast. The high-altitude region that connects Central and South Asia is largely covered in snow.

The valley was designated as a buffer zone between the two empires' borders because of the Russo-British agreements in 1895; it was officially governed by the emir in Kabul.

The Tajikistani area of Gorno-Badakhshan, to the north of the Corridor, was the scene of a brief but bloody civil war in the 1990s. Greater Kashmir, which is bitterly contested by India, Pakistan, and China, is located to its south. While this is happening, Xinjiang may be found across the icy Wakhjir pass at the far eastern extremity of the Corridor. This region also includes the Amu River.

Recently, Abdul Karim Khurram, the chief of staff for former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, sparked a contentious discussion with a tweet about Pakistan's desire to impose a new Wakhan Corridor policy.

For reasons related to trade with Tajikistan, Pakistan had requested the building of a transit road across Wakhan, according to Khurram's tweet from July 22. In response to these claims, the Afghanistan government's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stated: “No discussion has taken place on the issue. There will be no compromise even on an inch of Afghanistan’s territory”.

Just days before the incident involving Taliban fighters destroying border posts built allegedly by the Pakistan military, there were strong rumours circulating in Afghanistan about Pakistan looking to set up its presence via camps and posts in this area. Faran Jeffery, deputy director and head of the South Asia terrorism desk at the Britain-based Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism (ITCT) spoke to India Today TV on how he views the situation.

Jeffery suggests the above rumours were a strong reason for the Taliban’s show of strength at the Wakhan corridor where they brought down alleged Pakistani posts. “I think the Taliban removed the border pillar and filmed the entire episode to dispel those rumours. In the past too, the Taliban has shown that it intends to take Afghan nationalist aspirations seriously and won't back down easily in front of Pakistan.“

Experts also believe that Pakistan is trying to utilize its strategic proximity to Afghanistan and the Wakhan Corridor to posture its intentions in controlling the advancement of the Taliban toward the Western borders of China, bordering on the Tashkorgan (Tashkurgan) Autonomous County in the Kashgar Prefecture of Western Xinjiang region.

On the other hand, China has ensured to directly engage with the Taliban rather than rely on Pakistan owing to Pakistan’s failure to protect the recent killings of Chinese nationals part of the CPEC projects. In July 2021, a suicide bomber driving a car crashed into a convoy of Chinese workers headed for a hydropower project in northern Pakistan, killing 14 Chinese workers. With Pakistan having its plate full in having to deal with local actors like TTP and the Baloch militants, China has been steadily building its rapport with the Taliban.

According to Abdul Basit, Research Fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), the Taliban never acknowledged the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, precisely why it keeps getting referred to as the Durand line. “Earlier this year, the Taliban and the Pakistan army clashed on the Torkham border which falls under the region of FATA. It was to stop the illegal fencing work. This incident at the Wakhan corridor is a continuation of such conflicts and is primarily carried out by the Taliban to make a point on nationalism”, Rajaratnam told India Today TV. He also adds that it is unlikely that China would rely on Pakistan in dealing with the Taliban and in fact, feels the other way is quite possible. “Pakistan may in fact be asking for China’s help to deal with the Taliban and the TTP”, he added.

Manoj Kewalramani, Author, and a Fellow-China Studies & Chair, Indo-Pacific Studies at the Takshashila Institution said, "China may not be worried about infiltration from its Western borders as the security is very tight; but Pakistan may be keeping the anxiety alive for its own benefits"

China’s treatment of Uyghurs and its general approach in dealing with Islam and Islamic radicalization within China is often an issue of interest and contempt globally. After the Taliban came back to power, something that the Taliban did not expect was for Afghanistan to totally get isolated with respect to incoming fund flow, NGOs and bilateral relations with nations that played a significant role in the past.

Hence, China has been the major contributor and supporter of Afghanistan, at least on paper as of now. If it was Pakistan for the US, it may well be Afghanistan for China. Similar to Pakistan leveraging its strategic importance to get financial assistance from the USA, Afghanistan may try to talk hard on Uyghur separatists to get support from China but again use the ETIM as a trump card for negotiations; especially given China’s concerns about the presence of militants along its border.

Jeffery implies that China has concerns about the presence of militants along its border but most of those concerns are related to the presence of ETIM/TIP militants, who are allied with the Taliban. “A few months ago, the Taliban relocated several of these militants away from China's border. But at the same time, ETIM/TIP has recently restarted highlighting its presence in Afghanistan after initially keeping a low profile following the Taliban takeover. Taliban are unlikely to expel these militants or hand them over to China. These militants can prove to be a headache for China in the future, however for now Taliban has assured China that it will rein in these militants”, added Jeffery.

The other risk for China is that even Pakistan cannot do a lot in this as ETIM (Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement)/TIP (Turkistan Islamic Party) is now strengthening its relations with TTP (of Pakistan) and Jamaat Ansarullah, enhancing its military's instruction in the creation and usage of IEDs, putting morale as a priority, and preparing to launch terrorist operations against Chinese interests in the area, according to a recently released UN Security council report. The report also states that many Uyghur fighters have now joined hands with these groups as the Uighur diaspora in Turkey is also an important recruitment source for ETIM/TIP. The ETIM is highly active in Badakhshan, Faryab, Kabul and Nuristan Provinces of Afghanistan. The group also has close links with Al-Qaida and its primary goal is to establish a Uyghur state in Xinjiang (China), and towards that goal, facilitate the movement of fighters from Afghanistan to China.

Then, there is the problem of the growing ISIS-Khorasan presence that has actively been recruiting Uyghurs. The ISKP has been actively campaigning against the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda for allegedly going soft on China’s excesses against the Uyghurs and this has enabled them to raise a lot of funds and support. In May 2022, the Islamic State's Khurasan Province (ISIS-K) issued strong words against China in their “Voice of Khurasan” magazine.

One of the paragraphs read, “By the will Allah, soon the Islamic State's warriors will attack the modern cities of China to avenge the Uyghur Muslims. And similarly, very soon the blood of Iranian majoos [fire-worshippers, Zoroastrians] will be shed on their streets too, provided that the flames of fire have already reached Pakistan and it is increasing and spreading day by day. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan should not consider this latest attack as the last one; rather they should wait for the flames of war to reach their doorsteps in their cities and houses.”

According to Basit, “China is overplaying the threat of Uyghurs and the related groups because Uyghurs are neither powerful nor do they possess a lot of weapons. There has been no major attack for years and the Uyghur threat has been blown out of proportion.”

China’s President Xi Jinping visited the region of Xinjiang on July 12th and stressed that Islam and other minorities in China must be Chinese in orientation. This will certainly be used as another reason and a tool for mass propaganda and brainwashing by anti-Chinese terror groups.

Kewalramani added that “While the Taliban’s increasing radicalization will surely concern China in the future in terms of providing inspiration to Uyghur-based groups, China's major concerns will be concerning the prospects of the CPEC and the BRI in the context of security issues surrounding the same. The rising instability in Central Asia (Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) may also keep China occupied in closely following the increased threat of Islamism".

China is close to officially opening its first “super-high plateau airport” in the Xinjiang region, with the Tashkorgan Airport. The Airport covers 230.4 hectares and is 3,252 meters above sea level, making it one of China's highest airports. The criteria to be termed a super-high plateau airport is for airports to have elevations above 2,438 meters.

The Tashkorgan Airport is expected to open later this month. The facility is expected to have a handling capacity of 160,000+ passengers and 400 metric tons of cargo per year. The entire airport took an estimated 26 months to complete construction. The geographical significance of this airport is that it is located on the Karakoram highway and lies east of China’s border with Tajikistan. The new airport also overlooks the highly strategic Wakhan Corridor.

Given the remote nature of the region and the airport, it is highly unlikely that this will become a tourist hotbed and will most likely be put to dual use, which is for both commercial as well as military/reconnaissance needs. Earlier an India Today report revealed the possible underground facilities being built at the airport.

China has established a sizable, high-tech police state to repress and control millions of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang, as well as the Sarikoli (The Sarikoli language is a member of the Pamir subgroup of the Southeastern Iranian languages spoken by Tajiks in China. It is officially referred to in China as the "Tajik language", although it is different from the related Iranian language spoken in Tajikistan, which is considered a dialect of Persian.) who once interacted freely with their Iranian-speaking cousins in the Wakhan and Gorno-Badakhshan, is unnerved by cross-border solidarity. It is preferable to solidify control of the Wakhan, even if it involves the Taliban.

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