Dara-I-Pech District (also known as Manogay District or Pech District[1]) is located western-central part of Kunar Province, Afghanistan, 30 km West from Asadabad. The population is 48,400 (2006). The district is governed from Mano Gai.[2] The governor is Mohammad Rahkman.
While the bulk of the population is Safi Pashtun, who are mostly settled along the Pech River, the district also includes the Pashai-speaking Korengalis in the southern portion of the Korengal Valley.
There are several large capillary valleys, such as the Korengal and Shuryak. There are 13 big villages and most of them are in the valleys of the mountainous district. There has been a timber market. People are generally poor. Farming and animal husbandry are the main sources of income. Health care and education need improvement.
Nangalam, at the junction of the Pech and Waygal Rivers, is the largest town in the district. Formerly inhabited by speakers of a Pech Valley Dardic (Indic) language called Nangalami, the village was destroyed by Communist Afghan troops in 1978. When it was rebuilt, the inhabitants were predominantly Safi Pashtuns. The major coalition base of Camp Blessing is located near Nangalam to the west.
In 1999 the area was affected by extensive fires which burned through thousands of acres of forest in the Dara Pech Valley, displacing some 300 people and the Taliban in power at the time appealed to the UN for assistance.[3]
On 13 November, 2003, an explosive device was detonated in a bus in the area, killing four people, two of them children.[4]
The Korengal Valley has been the scene of sustained fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents. The New York Times magazine ran a story by contributing writer Elizabeth Rubin entitled Battle Company Is Out There on Feb. 24, 2008.