Charikar
Charikar, also known as Imam Abu Hanifa or Imam Azam, is a city in the northeastern area of Afghanistan, serving as the capital of Parwan Province. It is within the jurisdiction of Charikar District and has an estimated population of 222,751 people. They include various ethnic groups of Afghanistan. The mayor of the city is Hafiz Raz Mohammad Yasir.
Charikar was officially renamed in December 2022 to honor the 8th-century Sunni Muslim theologian and jurist Abu Hanifa, who is also sometimes called Imam Azam and was the founder of the Hanafi school of Islamic law. The city lies on the Afghanistan Ring Road, from Kabul along the route to the northern provinces. Travelers would pass the city when traveling to Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz or Puli Khumri. Despite the proximity to Kabul, slightly more than half of the land is not built-up. Of the built-up land, almost equal parts are residential and vacant plots, with a grid network of road coverage amounting to 19% of built-up land area,. The city is at the gateway to the Panjshir Valley, where the Shamali plains meet the foothills of the Hindu Kush, and is known for its pottery and high-quality grapes. It has four police districts and a total land area of.
History
In 1221, the Battle of Parwan was fought near Charikar, in which Jalal al-Din Mangburni with a large army defeated a column of 30,000 soldiers of the invading Mongols. He later escaped into the northern Punjab, and avoided the immediate consequences of the fall of the Khwarezmid Empire.At the beginning of the 19th century, Charikar became a flourishing commercial town of several thousand inhabitants. Charikar was the location of major battle during the First Anglo-Afghan War. In 1841 a British garrison was massacred by Afghans led by Mir Masjidi Khan, and the Anglo-Indian army officer Major Eldred Pottinger was badly wounded.
During the Soviet–Afghan War, the region around Charikar saw fierce fighting. Some areas around Charikar served as a stronghold of the Liberation Organization of the People of Afghanistan. Charikar was at the front line between Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance and the Taliban who captured Kabul in 1996. Charikar, Jabal Saraj District and Gulbahar were captured in January of 1997.
On 14 August 2011, a team of about six suicide bombers attacked the governor's palace in Charikar. The Governor Abdul Basir Salangi survived but 19 people were killed to which the Taliban claimed responsibility.
On 19 May 2020, gunmen opened fire inside a mosque in Charikar, killing 11 worshipers and injuring 16 others when they were offering the evening prayer after breaking their Ramadan fast. The Taliban denied involvement in the attack.
In late August 2020, the city was the site of floods that killed at least 92 people.
Following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban provincial governor of Parwan province announced in December 2022 that the name of the city would be changed. One news source said the new name of the town was "Imam Abu Hanifa", while another reported the new name as "Imam Azam". A government official from the former Afghan regime said the renaming was the beginning of an anti-Farsi campaign by the regime.