Wakhan Corridor

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Wakhan Corridor

The Wakhan Corridor or Wakhan Salient is a narrow (in some places less than 10 mi. wide) corridor in the Wakhan in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. It is located in the Pamir mountain region, with Tajikistan to the north, Pakistan and the disputed territory of the Northern Areas of Jammu and Kashmir to the south and China to the east. It was created at the end of 19th century by the British Empire, to act as a buffer against potential Russian ambitions in India during the Great Game.

Historically the Wakhan has been an important region for thousands of years as it is where the Western and Eastern portions of Central Asia meet. Before the advent of Islam the region was disputed between Tibet and China.

At the eastern end, the Wakhjir is a pass through the Hindu Kush at 4,923 m, and has the sharpest official change of clocks of any international frontier (UTC+4:30 in Afghanistan to UTC+8, China Standard Time, in China). The border here with China is among the highest in the world. According to the paper by J.Townsend (2005), the pass "is closed for at least five months a year and is open irregularly for the remainder."

The Corridor is sparsely populated. The main people present in the corridor are the Wakhi, along with smaller numbers of Kyrgyz.

The Wakhan Corridor

J. Townsend (2005) discusses the possibility of drug smuggling from Afghanistan to China via Wakhan Corridor and Wakhjir Pass, but concludes that, due to the difficulties of travel and border crossings, even if such trafficking occurs, it is minor compared to that conducted via Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast or even via Pakistan, which both have much more accessible connections into China.

Alastair Leithead on BBC News 24 on the 26th December 2007 presented a half hour feature about the corridor focusing particularly on the work of expatriate British Doctor Alexander Duncan which provided a significant piece of extended media reporting from this inaccessible area. The programme seems a follow up to this BBC Radio 4 piece accessible at http://www.mininova.org/tor/964145 . He has also covered the Pamir Festival in the area traceable through http://pamirtimes.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/pamir-festival-mehboob-aziz/.

[edit] See also

• Durand Line

[edit] Books

M. Nazif Mohib Shahrani, The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan: Adaptation to Closed Frontiers and War. University of Washington Press, 2002. ISBN 0295982624.

[edit] External links

• WAKHIS IN PAKISTAN
• Pamir Trekking Information
• CIA Relief Map
• The Source of the Oxus River: Journey to the Wakhan Pamir & Across Dilisang Pass to Misgar (2004)
• Jacob Townsend, "China and Afghan Opiates: Assessing the Risk" (Chapter 4). June 2005
• Wakhan Development Partnership A project working to improve the lives of the people of Wakhan since 2003
• Wakhan Corridor Photos from Afghan Wakhan Corridor

v • d • e Territorial disputes in East, South, and Southeast Asia
Type	Territory	Currently Administered by	Claimants
Land:	Aksai Chin		2
	Arunachal Pradesh		2
	Baekdu Mountain		2 2
	East Turkestan		1 2
	Heixiazi / Bolshoy Ussuriyskiy (Eastern part)2
	Indo-Bangladesh enclaves3
	Kashmir3		2
	Kachin State		1 2
	Kayin State		1
	Korean Peninsula and its adjacent islands3
	Mainland China2
	Mongolia2
	Pamir Mountains (Northern and central parts)2
	Wakhan Corridor2
	Pattani		1
	Sabah2
	Shan State		1
	Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilongjiang River2
	Tannu Uriankhai (now Tuva Republic of Russia)2
	Tibet		1 2
	Trans-Karakoram Tract		2
	Wa State		1
Islands and Waters:	Kinmen
	Liancourt Rocks		2
	Macclesfield Bank
	Matsu
	Paracel Islands
	Pedra Branca, Middle Rocks and South Ledge
	Pratas Islands
	Scarborough Shoal
	Senkaku Islands
	Sir Creek3
	Socotra Rock		2 2
	Southern Kuril Islands
	Spratly Islands3
	Taiwan and Pescadores2
Notes:	1Government in exile/exiled group. 2Inactive dispute. 3Divided among multiple claimants.