Fact 1: The UN monitoring team has assessed TTP as the largest terrorist group operating from Afghan soil, with continued facilitation under the Taliban regime.
Fact 2: The TTP continues to exploit Afghan safe havens in provinces like Kunar, Nangarhar, Khost, and Paktika for cross-border infiltration, launching over 600 attacks in Pakistan in the past year.
Fact 3: Recent escalations and border clashes underscore the urgent need for a structured conflict-management and de-escalation mechanism.
Goals: To deny sanctuary and movement to TTP and allied militants. To disrupt, deter, and dismantle TTP’s cross-border operational freedom. Eliminate launch pads, assembly zones, and training camps within 25 km of the border. Respect Afghan sovereignty and insulate border populations from militant coercion and economic collapse.
Relatively successful Models: The Sinai Peninsula buffer-zone between Egypt and Israel. The Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North Korea and South Korea. Wakhan Corridor (Northeastern Afghanistan). Fergana Valley (Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan/Tajikistan/ Uzbekistan). Tort‑Kocho area (Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan border)
Plan of Action: A jointly verified 25 km Afghan strip inside Afghanistan connected by five controlled crossing corridors and overseen by a Joint Border Commission (JBC). Define a 25 km buffer strip focused on infiltration hotspots bordering North/South Waziristan, Bajaur, and Kurram. Require Afghan Taliban forces to withdraw from the zone, prohibiting TTP bases or training camps. Pakistan would maintain its existing border fence as the outer perimeter, with no new advances into Afghanistan. Mediate via neutral parties like Qatar or Saudi Arabia.
Ceasefire tie-in: Convert tactical ceasefire into a 30-day renewable cessation linked to ADES milestones. Create a Joint Border Commission (JBC) with DG-level representatives from Afghanistan and Pakistan plus one neutral OIC observer seat. Map the Afghan De-Escalation Strip. A joint geospatial map, red boxes (no-go), green nodes (crossing corridors). Publish the map.
Establish a hotline between Pakistani and Afghan military commanders for immediate de-escalation, with penalties for violations like trade suspensions or OIC sanctions referrals. Tie the ADES to resume border trade at crossings like Torkham and Chaman, and provide Afghanistan with economic aid – $100 million in Pakistani grants for infrastructure, conditional on TTP expulsion.
Implement joint surveillance and monitoring mechanisms by deploying shared drone patrols and ground sensors, motion detectors and cameras across, operated by a joint Afghan-Pakistani task force with real-time data sharing and third-party verification, such as OIC observers. Mandate weekly intelligence exchanges on TTP movements and Afghanistan committing to dismantle them outside the ADES. Target 70 percent fall in cross-border attacks in 12 months and trade recovery to 80 percent of pre-conflict levels in 18 months.
Design the Afghan De-Escalation Strip so militants lose ground and communities regain trust. Modeled on other successful de-escalation strips, ADES could cut TTP attacks by 50–70 percent in its first year by physically blocking infiltration routes. Beyond security, ADES would build cooperation and restore confidence along the frontier — transforming confrontation into coordination, and conflict into gradual resolution.
—The writer is a journalist and political analyst and currently
executive director of the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).
