Kurram Agency

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Kurram (Urdu: کرم ) tribal agency is located in the FATA area of Pakistan.

The Kurram District is part of the Peshāwar Division of the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. The Kurram River drains the southern flanks of the Safed Koh mountain range, and enters the Indus plains north of Bannu. It crosses the Afghan-Pakistan border about 80 km southwest of Jalalabad, and joins the Indus near Isa Khel after a course of more than 320 km (200 miles). The district has an area of 3,310 km² (1,278 sq. miles); pop. approx. 300,000. It lies between the Miranzai Valley and the Afghan border, and is inhabited by the Turis, a tribe of Turki and Parthian origin who are supposed to have subjugated the Bangash Pathans about six hundred years ago.

It is highly irrigated, well peopled, and crowded with small fortified villages, orchards and groves, to which a fine background is afforded by the dark pine forests and alpine snows of the Safed Koh. The beauty and climate of the valley attracted some of the Mogul emperors of Delhi, and the remains exist of a garden planted by Shah Jahan.

The Kurram River crosses the Afghan-Pakistan border about 80 km southwest of Jalalabad and in ancient times offered the most direct route to Kabul and Gardez, but the route crossed the Peiwar Pass 3,439 m (11,283 ft) high, just over 20 km west of Parachinar, which was blocked by snow for several months of the year.

It has recently been an area of intense military activity between the Taliban and American and allied forces because of its strategic position.

[edit] References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Bowles, Gordon T. (1977). The People of Asia. London. Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Scott-Moncrieff, Major-General Sir George K. "The Roads of the North-West Frontier." Blackwood's Magazine, No. MCCCIV, Vol. CCXV, June 1924, pp. 743-757.
Swinson, Arthur (1967). North-West Frontier. Frederick A. Praeger, New York, Washington.