According to a recent analysis by India Today, India and Afghanistan once shared a contiguous land boundary of 106 km through the Wakhan Corridor and Gilgit-Baltistan region — a border erased by deceitful manoeuvres during the partition era.

In 1947, as the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir chose accession to India, the region of Gilgit-Wazarat (part of GB) was under British-leased administration. By exploiting this transitional moment, two British officers of the Gilgit Scouts — Major W.A. Brown and Captain A.S. Mathieson — colluded with local forces to overthrow Maharaja Hari Singh’s governor and sign a decree of accession with Pakistan, albeit illegally and without popular consent.

Through that engineered coup, Pakistan inserted itself between India and Afghanistan — cutting a historic Silk Route link via the high-altitude Wakhan corner. That region once symbolised unimpeded movement of traders, monks and pilgrims between South and Central Asia.

Today, the relationship between India and Afghanistan is periodically invoked in diplomatic statements — with India pointing to that historic contiguous boundary as a reminder of its legitimate territorial claim, while Pakistan contests the narrative. The story underscores the lasting impact of colonial policies, wartime manoeuvres and region-shaping betrayals on South Asia’s geopolitical map.