Up the Khyber: down with super terrorism - OverseasTrading - brief history of Afghanistan's Khyber Pass - Brief Article

Business Asia, Oct, 2001 by Tim Fischer

IN THE AFTERMATH of the horrific terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the focus has quickly moved to Afghanistan and its environs, seemingly for good reason. On the western perimeter lies Iran, on the eastern perimeter the world's most historic Pass, the mighty Khyber Pass, and Pakistan.

It is instructive to revisit the history of the Khyber with its road and rail infrastructure linking as it does Islamabad and Peshawar to Kabul when the border is open.

The mighty Khyber Pass at one point is no wider than a tennis court, and as you stand and gaze down on this narrow choke it is easy to recall that through this point in the Pass the famous and infamous have passed.

The Khyber Pass these last few years has been the pipeline for human misery as refugees have moved backwards and forwards along with smugglers of various kinds, including weapons merchants. The narrow sealed road winds its way up from the plains near Jamrud, with many sharp curves and steep grades and the odd village and many enclosed compounds.

There is no doubt this is a wild place, and the British were deeply concerned in the 19th Century that Russia would come through to invade India via the Khyber Pass. The British had also lost three Anglo-Afghan wars, and this involving some horrific massacres with entire contingents being wiped out.

In part to overcome defence and security concerns, the British decided to build a broad gauge railway line up the Khyber, entirely for resupply reasons and not as some form of transport between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is a brilliantly engineered single-track heavy-duty 5'6" gauge railway line which uses a series of zigzags to gain height and make it to the summit of the Pass. This railway line stops just short of the border and is used today for occasional tourist steam trains.

At various stages thousands of refugees have surged through the Pass heading east to escape civil war, Russian occupation, tribal conflicts and all sorts of battles that have raged over the years. Occasionally during periods of relative peace, refugees have surged back to their homelands to try and eke out a living and try and catch up with relatives.

All of this is relevant to one particular observation. This Pass has provided camouflage and cover for the highest levels of terrorist organisations for years. Arms trading, gold smuggling, bulk heroin exporting and some are all part of the Pass and with the various waves of humanity, often enough beyond detection.

It is the crossover point for the legitimate aboveground operators to meet and resupply and coordinate with the underground operators. Even on days that it is physically closed, the myriad of tracks just north and south of the Pass allow for a constant flow on foot or donkey or horse.

As the Western world moves forward with its response to the events of 11 September, spearheaded by the USA, the Khyber and Pakistan will continue to be a major focus on the eastern side of Afghanistan, so will Iran for different reasons on the western side.

Already a re-evaluation by the West is taking place with regard to the Islamic Republic of Iran. For years the USA, and Britain, have had little to do with Iran. Indeed, the US Congress has passed legislation precluding American companies from trading and investing in Iran.

Suddenly this is all changing, and the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has just made a successful visit to Iran, the first for over 20 years by a British Foreign Secretary. Russia announced a new arms deal with Iran in the first week of October.

The truth of the matter is Iran has made some progress with political reform under the leadership of President Khatami, who was elected to a second term earlier this year. Iran, as opposed to certain other Middle East countries, permits women to teach, to drive, to be members of the local government and the national Parliament. It also has sought to modernise its economy and boost trade investment and tourism.

Whilst there are still great difficulties with regard to human rights and to arms trading and the like, it should be pointed out that not only does Iran have an elected national Parliament, but it has Christian and even a Jewish member of that Iranian Parliament.

It has been long overdue for the Western world to re-engage Iran, and this now appears to be happening, particularly given Iran's long-standing opposition to the Taliban.

We all await events day by day, week by week, but it is going to take much longer than originally envisaged to win the first battle against super terrorism, let alone the war against super terrorism.