The Khyber Pass 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 inside Pakistan at Landi Kotal.
History 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 Persian king Mahmud Ghaznavi, and the Afghan Muhammad Ghori and the Turkic-Mongols.
Finally, Sikhs under Ranjit Singh captured the Khyber Pass in 1798 . Hari Singh Nalwa,
who manned the Khyber Pass for years, became a household name in Afghanistan.
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" were erected on the valley floor due to British
fears of a German tank invasion of India.
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.
. Current conflicts
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
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”.
The result meant that more than 70 people were arrested and 45 homes were destroyed.
In addition, two 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 broaden supply
routes, through Central Asia.
Even the option of supplying material through the Iranian port of Chabahar was considered.
In 2010, the already complicated relationship with Pakistan 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 on 30 September which caused a convoy of several
NATO trucks to queue at the closed border.
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.
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 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 demand more protection
from the Pakistani and US government threatening not to supply fuel for the Afghan side.
Elsewhere A number of locations around the world have
been named after the Khyber Pass.
A Suburb of Delhi, India is named after this pass.
Khyber Pass road is a major road in the suburb of Newmarket Auckland, New Zealand.
An artificial rockwork feature at East Park, Kingston upon Hull, UK.
Steep and twisting road up the West Cliff at Whitby, UK.
See also Ali Masjid and the Battle of Ali Masjid
Dasht-e Yahudi Durand Line
Federally Administered Tribal Areas Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Agency Khyber Pass Copy
Khyber train safari Carry On...
Up the Khyber, film References
Further reading Molesworth, Lt-Gen. G.N., Afghanistan 1919.
This book describes in detail the author's passage Somerset Light Infantry.
External links History of Khyber Pass, Pakistan