Kurram River

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kurrum River (Urdu: دریائے کرم) flows in the Kurrum Valley, stretching across the Afghan-Pakistani border west to east (crosses from the Paktia Province of Afghanistan into the Kohat border region of Pakistan) at 33°49′N, 69°58′E, about 150 km west-to-south-west of the Khyber Pass.

The Kurram Agency is part of the Peshāwar Division of the Northwest Frontier Province. The Kurram River drains the southern flanks of the Safed Koh (Range), and enters the plains a north of Bannu, and joins the Indus River at 32°35′N, 71°27′E 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. 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.

Formerly the Kurram Valley was under the government of Kabul, and every five or six years a military expedition was sent to collect the revenue, the soldiers living meanwhile at free quarters on the people. It was not until about 1848 that the Turis were brought directly under the control of Kabul, when a governor was appointed, who established himself in Kurram. The Turis, being Shiah Muslims, never liked the Afghan rule.

During the second Afghan War, when Sir Frederick Roberts advanced by way of the Kurram Valley and the Peiwar Kotal to Kabul, the Turis lent him every assistance in their power, and in consequence their independence was granted them in 1880.

The administration of the Kurram Valley was finally undertaken by the British government, at the request of the Turis themselves, in 1890. Technically it ranked, not as a British district, but as an agency or administered area.

Two expeditions in the Kurram Valley also require mention: (1) The Kurram expedition of 1856 under Brigadier-General Sir Neville Chamberlain. The Turis on the first annexation of the Kohat district by the British had given much trouble. They had repeatedly leagued with other tribes to harry the Miranzai valley, harbouring fugitives, encouraging resistance, and frequently attacking Bangash and Khattak villages in the Kohat district. Accordingly, in 1856 a British force of 4,896 troops traversed their country, and the tribe entered into engagements for future good conduct. (2) The Kohat-Kurram expedition of 5,897 under Colonel W. Hill. During the frontier risings of 1897 the inhabitants of the Kurram valley, chiefly the Massozai section of the Orakzais, were infected by the general excitement, and attacked the British camp at Sadda and other posts. A force of 14,230 British troops traversed the country, and the tribesmen were severely punished. In Lord Curzon's reorganization of the frontier in 1900-1901, the British troops were withdrawn from the forts in the Kurram Valley, and were replaced by the Kurram militia, reorganized in two battalions, and chiefly drawn from the Turi tribe.

In recent years the Kurram Valley has once again assumed a very strategic position and has been an area of intense military activity between the Taliban and American and allied forces.

[edit] Mentioned in Rigveda

In the Rigveda, the Kurrum is mentioned as Krumu.[1]

[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 & 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.