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Khyber Pass
Looking back towards Pakistan, on the Afghanistan side of the Khyber Pass
Elevation	1,070 m (3,510 ft)
Location	Afghanistan/Pakistan
Range	Spin Ghar
Coordinates	34°05′35″N 71°08′38″E / 34.093°N 71.144°E / 34.093; 71.144Coordinates: 34°05′35″N 71°08′38″E / 34.093°N 71.144°E / 34.093; 71.144

History of Afghanistan

See also: Timeline

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The Khyber Pass, (Pashto: د خیبر درہ, Urdu/Persian: درۂ خیبر) (altitude: 1,070 m or 3,510 ft) is a mountain pass connecting Afghanistan and Pakistan, cutting through the northeastern part of the Spin Ghar mountains. An integral part of the ancient Silk Road, it is one of the oldest known passes in the world. Throughout history it has been an important trade route between Central Asia and South Asia and a strategic military location. The summit of the pass is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) inside Pakistan at Landi Kotal.

History[link]

Well known invasions of the area have been predominantly through the Khyber Pass, such as the invasions by Darius I and Alexander the Great and also include Genghis Khan and later Mongols such as Duwa, Qutlugh Khwaja and Kebek. Among the Muslim invasions of South Asia, the famous invaders coming through the Khyber Pass are the Turks such as Mahmud Ghaznavi, Muhammad Ghori and the Turkic-Mongols such as Timur Lane and Babur whose invasion resulted in the establishment of the celebrated Mughul Empire (1526-1857). During the Mughal Period India was again invaded by the Persians under Nadir Shah and later by the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani; all these invasions coming through the Khyber Pass. The British invaded Afghanistan from India via the pass and fought three Afghan Wars in 1839-42, 1878-80, and 1919. George Molesworth, a member of the British force of 1919, summarized: "Every stone in the Khyber has been soaked in blood." Rudyard Kipling called it "a sword cut through the mountains."

Finally, Sikhs under Ranjit Singh, in 1798 captured the Khyber Pass. Hari Singh Nalwa, who manned the Khyber pass for years became a household name in Afghanistan.^[1][2]

Afghan chiefs and a British Political officer posed at Jamrud fort at the mouth of the Khyber Pass in 1878.

To the north of the Khyber Pass lies the country of the Mullagori tribe. To the south is Afridi Tirah, while the inhabitants of villages in the Pass itself are Afridi clansmen. Throughout the centuries the Pashtun clans, particularly the Afridis and the Afghan Shinwaris, have regarded the Pass as their own preserve and have levied a toll on travellers for safe conduct. Since this has long been their main source of income, resistance to challenges to the Shinwaris' authority has often been fierce.

For strategic reasons, after the First World War the British built a heavily engineered railway through the Pass. The Khyber Pass Railway from Jamrud, near Peshawar, to the Afghan border near Landi Kotal was opened in 1925.

During World War II concrete "dragon’s teeth" (tank obstacles) were erected on the valley floor due to British fears of a German tank invasion of India.^[3]

The Pass became widely known to thousands of Westerners and Japanese who traveled it in the days of the Hippie trail, taking a bus or car from Kabul to the Afghan border. At the Pakistani frontier post, travelers were advised not to wander away from the road, as the location was a barely controlled Federally Administered Tribal Area. Then, after customs formalities, a quick daylight drive through the Pass was made. Monuments left by British Army units, as well as hillside forts, could be viewed from the highway.

The area of the Khyber Pass has been connected with a counterfeit arms industry, making various types of weapons known to gun collectors as Khyber Pass Copies, using local steel and blacksmiths' forges.^[4][5]

Current conflicts[link]

Khyber Pass

During the current war in Afghanistan, the Khyber Pass has been a major route for resupplying military armament and food to the NATO forces in the Afghan theater of conflict since the US started the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Almost 80 percent of the NATO and US supplies that are brought in by road were transported through this Khyber Pass. Furthermore, it has also been used to transport civilians from the Afghan side to the Pakistani one. Until the end of 2007, this route had been relatively safe since the tribes living there (mainly Afridi, a Pashtun tribe) were paid by the Pakistani government to keep the area safe. However, since that year, the Taliban began to control the region, and so there started to exist wider tensions in their political relationship.

Since the end of 2008, supply convoys and depots in this western part increasingly came under attack by elements from or supposedly sympathetic to the Pakistani Taliban.

In January 2009, Pakistan sealed off the bridge as part of a military offensive against Taliban guerrillas. This military operation was mainly focused on Jamrud, a district on the Khyber road. The target was to “dynamite or bulldoze homes belonging to men suspected of harboring or supporting Taliban militants or carrying out other illegal activities”.^[6] The result meant that more than 70 people were arrested and 45 homes were destroyed. In addition, two innocent children and one woman were killed. As a response, in early February 2009, Taliban insurgents cut off the Khyber Pass temporarily by blowing up a key bridge.

This increasingly unstable situation in northwest Pakistan, made the US and NATO to broaden supply routes, through Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). Even it was considered the option of supplying material through the Iranian port of Chabahar.^[7]

In 2010, the already complicated relationship with Pakistan (always accused by the US of hosting the Taliban in this border area without reporting it) became tougher after the NATO forces, under the pretext of mitigating the Taliban's power over this area, executed an attack with drones over the Durand line, passing the frontier of Afghanistan and killing three Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan answered by closing the pass the 30th of September which caused a convoy of several NATO trucks to queue at the closed border.^[8] This convoy was attacked by extremists apparently linked to Al Qaida which caused the destruction of more than 29 oil tankers and trucks and the killing of several soldiers.^[9] NATO chief members had to issue a formal apology to the Pakistan government so the supply traffic at this pass could be restored.

In August 2011, the activity at the Khyber pass was again halted^[10] by the Khyber Agency administration due to the more possible attacks of the insurgency over the NATO forces, which had suffered a period of big number of assaults over the trucks heading to supply the NATO and ISAF coalitions all over the frontier line. This instability made the Pakistan Oil Tanker Owners Association to demand more protection from the Pakistani and US government threatening not to supply fuel for the Afghan side.

This rising of violence had taken place due to the detention and killing of the Al Qaida´s chief leader Osama Bin Laden in May 2011. However, it must be said that the strengthening of the insurgency´s activity had always been linked to the control that Pakistani military services and the ISI exercises over this western area of Pakistan. In other words, conflict over the Khyber Pass is totally tied to the diplomatic relationships between Pakistan and the US, lately affected by the illegal American military intervention in Pakistan for the “hunting” of Bin Laden and the big number of Pakistani soldiers and civilians killed due to the, scarcely reported, drone attacks^[11] perpetrated by the NATO and US army over the frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Conquerors and generals[link]

The commanders who crossed the Khyber Pass all led armies eastward in the conquest of India, except for Chandragupta Maurya, Shah Jahan, Ranjit Singh, George Pollock and General Sir Samuel James Browne VC who crossed in the opposite direction.^{[citation needed]}

Elsewhere[link]

• A Suburb of Delhi, India is named after this pass.^[12][13][14]
• Khyber Pass road is a major road in the suburb of Newmarket Auckland, New Zealand.

See also[link]

• Ali Masjid and the Battle of Ali Masjid
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
• Khyber Agency
• Federally Administered Tribal Areas
• Durand Line
• Khyber train safari
• Carry On... Up the Khyber
• Khyber Pass Copy
• Dasht-e Yahudi

Further reading[link]

• Molesworth, Lt-Gen. G.N., Afghanistan 1919 (Asia Publishing House, 1962). This book describes in detail the author's passage (Prince Albert's)Somerset Light Infantry.
• Victor Bayley CIE CBE. "Permanent Way through the Khyber", Jarrolds (1934). In an article illustrated with photos, the author describes the construction of the railway. The book was reprinted in 1998 by Gyan Publishing House, India as Adventure through Khyber in a breach of copyright.

References[link]

External links[link]

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• History of Khyber Pass, Pakistan

Gallery[link]

• Pakistan Khyber Pass IMG 9639.jpg

  Khyber Gate on Jamrud Road

• Pakistan Khyber Pass IMG 9769.jpg

  Khyber Pass looking towards Afghanistan

• Pakistan Khyber Pass IMG 9826.jpg

  Khyber Rifles watch tower

• Pakistan Khyber Pass IMG 9813.jpg

  "May Peace Prevail On Earth" post

• 

  Khyber Pass Gateway southbound towards Peshawar

• Pakistan Khyber Pass IMG 9713.jpg

  Derelict British-built railway line and ruined Buddhist Stupa

• Pakistan Khyber Pass IMG 9803.jpg

  NATO forces transport activity

• 

  Typical Pakistani transport truck and passengers

• Pakistan Khyber Pass IMG 9912.jpg

  Soldier with AK-47 watching Khyber Pass

• 

  Washed out bridge

• Pakistan Khyber Pass IMG 9724.jpg

  Khyber Pass Military Regiment Signs

• Pakistan Khyber Pass IMG 9917.jpg

  Khyber Gate Information Plaque #1

• Pakistan Khyber Pass IMG 9918.jpg

  Khyber Gate Information Plaque #2

• 

  The Khyber Railway. With a Pakistan Railways HGS 2-8-0 at front and rear a charter train climbs the Khyber Pass through a series of zig-zags to gain height

• 

  An advertisement card from 1910 depicting Khaiber Pass

• 

  Mountain passes of Afghanistan

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