Wakhan District
Wakhan District is one of the 28 districts of Badakhshan province in eastern Afghanistan. It has an estimated population of about 17,213 people, mostly ethnic Wakhis, Pamiris and Kyrghyz. The town of Khandud serves as the district's capital. Mawlavi Wajuddin Mazhari is the current district governor.
The district of Wakhan has an area of approximately, which includes the whole of Wakhan National Park and parts of Noshaq and Zorkul. There is a gravel road that passes in the district. It starts from Ishkashim in neighboring Ishkashim District in the west and ends at the Wakhjir Pass in the far east. The closest major airport is Fayzabad Airport in the city of Fayzabad. All parts of the district are patrolled by the Afghan National Police and Afghan Armed Forces. Foreigners are required to have an Afghan visa, including a special permission letter from Afghanistan's Ministry of Information and Culture.
To the north of Wakhan is the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region of Tajikistan, to the east is the Xinjiang region of China, and to the south is Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.
History
As a source of major rivers flowing toward Central Asia, Wakhan has been an important part of many powerful Islamic empires such as the Samanid Empire, Ghaznavid Empire, Ghurid Empire, Khwarazmian Empire, Timurid Empire and so on. This mountainous terrain was historically used as one of the trade routes between Kabul and Kashgar. The region was last conquered by Nader Shah in around 1738. It has been under the control of Afghanistan since the formation of the Durrani Empire. The eastern border of Wakhan District was settled with China's Qing dynasty during the reign of Ahmad Shah Durrani. In 1891, during the Russian conquest of Central Asia, government forces from the Russian Empire had occupied Wakhan by stationing troops in Bazai Gumbad. A British national by the name of Francis Younghusband, who was traveling from Kashgar back to British India, was detained by the stationed Russian troops for having no visa or permission letter. After the signing of the 1893 Durand Line Agreement and the 1895 Pamir Boundary Commission protocols, the Russian troops had all withdrawn from Bazai Gumbad and Wakhan became a buffer zone between Tsarist Russia and British India.
Towns and villages
It was reported in 2008 that the district of Wakhan had 110 villages and 16 public schools.
Health
There is at least one health clinic in Wakhan.
Economy
The people of Wakhan are mostly villagers and involved in agriculture, trade, transport, security, and tourism. Some go to work in Kabul or other Afghan cities.