Bolan Pass
"Bolan Pass"
Bolan Pass, the important natural gateway through the Central Brāhui Range in Balochistān province, Pakistan, connecting Sibi to Quetta by road and railway. For centuries it has been a route for traders, invaders, and nomadic tribes between India and higher Asia. It comprises a series of long, narrow valleys or gorges and extends for 55 miles (89 km) from Rindli in the south to Darwāza near Kolpur in the north. Its widest point (16 miles [26 km]) is in the Laleji Plain south of Mach. The Nāri-Bolān Canal Project provides for the irrigation of about 24,000 acres (9,700 hectares) by means of damming the monsoon flow of the Bolān River in the Sibi Plain.
Strategically located, traders, invaders, and nomadic tribes have also used it as a gateway to and from the South Asia. The Bolan Pass is an important pass on the Baluch frontier, connecting Jacobabad and Sibi with Quetta, which has always occupied an important place in the history of British campaigns in Afghanistan. Traditionally, the Brahui of the Baluchi ethnic group is in charge of the law and order situation through the Pass area. This tribe is still living in present day Balochistan in Pakistan, and they still preserve their Dravidian Language.
In 1837, threatened by a possible Russian invasion of South Asia via the Khyber and Bolan Passes, a British envoy was sent to Kabul to gain support of the Emir, Dost Mohammed. In February 1839, the British Army under Sir John Keane took 12,000 men through the Bolan Pass and entered Kandahar, which the Afghan Princes had abandoned; from there they would go on to attack and overthrow Ghazni.
In 1883, Sir Robert Groves Sandeman negotiated with the Khan of Kalat Khudadad Khan and secured British control over the pass in exchange for an annual fee.
