Part of my journey between Zahedan and Zabol in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province was to stop over near the trijunction area, a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries meet, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Together with my Persian friend, Arman, we drove by the mountainous and deserted areas, only being pulled over twice at the military checkpoints. Luckily, we didn’t encounter any trouble with the authorities. The fact is, the province can be a very volatile region and Western visitors need to have a good reason to travel that far.
The Durand line is named after British Col. Mortimer Durand who in 1893 successfully negotiated a frontier agreement between Afghanistan and India. The Line was unchallenged as the legal political boundary until 1947 when with the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan. The Durand Agreement didn’t actually describe the Durand Line as a boundary of India but as the frontier of Amir’s (Abd-ur-Rahman) domain and the line beyond which neither side would exercise influence.
Frog on the border 