BALOCHISTAN (REGION)


Major ethnic groups in Pakistan and surrounding areas, in 1980. The Baloch are shown in pink.

'Balochistan' or 'Baluchistan' is an arid region located in the Iranian Plateau in Southwest Asia and South Asia, between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The area is named after the numerous Baloch (or Baluch, Balouch, Balooch, Balush, Balosh, Baloosh, Baloush) tribes, an Iranian people, who moved into the area from the west around A.D. 1000. All natives are considered Balochi even if they do not speak Balochi; Pashto, Persian, and Brahui languages are also spoken in the region. The southern part of Balochistan is known as Makran.

Contents
Landscape
History
Famous people of Baluchistan
Baluchistan Separatist Movements
Baluchistan Political Parties
Shaheed-e-Baluchistan
See also

Landscape


Balochistan's landscape is composed of barren, rugged mountains and fertile land. During the summer, some regions of Balochistan are the hottest in Pakistan. Most of the land is barren, and it is generally sparsely populated. In the south – the Makran – lies the desert through which Alexander the Great passed with great difficulty.

History


Main articles: History of Baluchistan

The original inhabitants of ancient Baluchistan, and other regions of Pakistan, were the aborigine tribes speaking languages related to Munda languages. The Dravidians are thought to have migrated from the Iranian plateau and settled in Baluchistan and the Indus valley around 4000 BC. The Brahui living in Baluchistan still speak a Dravidian language, thought to be a remnant from this earlier susbtrate. The Indo-European Indo-Aryan peoples, and other Indo-Iranian peoples, migrated from what is now Afghanistan and surrounding areas starting around 2000 BC, and settled in all regions of Pakistan. Later, these Aryan groups would become the Pakhtuns and the various Nuristani, Dardic, and other tribes that currently populate the region. Before the arrival of the Baloch, the region was populated by Pashtuns and Brahuis. The Pashtuns are now concentrated in Sibi, Bolan, Quetta, Pishin, Killa Abdullah, Killa Saifullah, Loralai, Zhob, Ziarat and Harnai. Many Brahuis live in Kalat District. Nearly all of Baluchistan, and what is today the country of Pakistan, was part by the Persian Achaemenid dynasty that ruled the area for over two hundred years beginning in 540 BC. In 326 BC, Alexander the Great defeated the Hindu king Puru (Porus, Paurava) at the Hydaspes near Jhelum and annexed the area to his Hellenistic empire. After Alexander's death and brief Seleucid control, Baluchistan remained part of the Persian empire.
Coin of Parataraja king Arjuna (2nd century AD).
''Obv:'' King with diadem, within a grenetis border.
''Rev:'' Swastika within Brahmi legend "Arjunasa Yolamiraputasa PÄrata (ra)jasa": "Of Arjuna, son of Yolamira, PÄrata King".

From the 1st century to the 3rd century AD, the region was ruled by the PÄratarÄjas (lit. "PÄrata Kings"), a dynasty of Indo-Scythian or Indo-Parthian kings. The dynasty of the PÄratas is thought to be identical with the PÄradas of the Mahabharata, the Puranas and other Indian sources.[1]
They are essentially known through their coins, which typically exhibit the bust of the ruler on the observe, with long hair within a headband), and a swastika within a Brahmi legend on the reverse (usually silver coins) or Kharoshthi (usually copper coins). The coins can mainly be found in the Loralai area of modern Pakistan.
Herodotus in 650 BC describes the ''Paraitakenoi'' as a tribe ruled by Deiokes, a Persian king, in northwestern Persia (History I.101). Arrian describes how Alexander the Great encountered the ''Pareitakai'' in Bactria and Sogdiana, and had them conquered by Craterus (Anabasis Alexandrou IV). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century AD) describes the territory of the ''Paradon'' beyond the Ommanitic region, on the coast of modern Baluchistan.[2]
During the Arab conquest of the Persian empire in the 8th century, Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world and many settled in Baluchistan and its tributory state until the rise of the Mughals. Numerous Baloch tribes, an Iranian people, moved into the area from the west in the 11th century to escape the Seljuk Turks. Western Baluchistan was conquered by Iran in the 19th century, and its boundary was fixed in 1872. Omani influence waned in the east and Oman's last possession, Gwadar, was bought by Pakistan in 1958. In 1998 Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan.

Famous people of Baluchistan


There are many famous people from Balochistan including the following:


'Historical Personalities'

Mir Chakar Khan Rind

Mir Sher Muhammad Talpur

Mir Sohrab Khan Talpur

Mir Ali Murad Khan Talpur

Mir Ali Murad Khan Talpur II

Mir Ali Nawaz Khan Talpur

Darya Khan Rind

Shahpur Chakar

Mir Allahyar Talpur

Punnun

Hazrat Babajan


'Eastern Balochistan'

Mir Abdul Aziz Kurd

Nabi Bux Khan Baloch

Mir Shahbaz Khan Nosherwani

Prince Karim Khan

Sardar Fateh Mohammed Khan Umrani

Sardar Mohammed Akbar Khan Umrani

Zafarullah Khan Jamali

Nawab Nowroz Khan

Ataullah Mengal

Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti

Brahamdagh Khan Bugti

Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri

Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo

Jumma Khan Marri

Sardar Sherbaz Khan Mazari

General Rahimuddin Khan

Farooq Leghari

Mir Gul Khan Naseer

Mir Balach Marri

Asif Ali Zardari

Mir Suleman Dawood Khan

Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi

Azad Baloch

Beeberg Baloch

Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry

Ramzi Yousef

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed

Abdul Rashid Ghazi Mazari

Abdul Raziq Bugti


'Western Balochistan'

Mir Dost Mohammad Baranzai

Dad Shah

Abdullah Qaaderi

Azam Miro

Rasool Baksh Miro

Abdulmalak Rigi


'Northern Balochistan'

Abdul Kariam Brahui

Baluchistan Separatist Movements




'Regional'

Baluchi Liberation Front

Balochistan Liberation Front

Jundallah


'Eastern Balochistan'

Balochistan Liberation Army

Bugti militia

Balochistan Liberation Front

Baloch Republican Army

Baloch Students Organization

Baluch People's Liberation Front

Popular Front for Armed Resistance

Baloch Students Organization- Awami

Baluchi Liberation Front

Parrari


'Western Balochistan'

Dad Shah

Baluchi Autonomist Movement

Baluchi Liberation Front

Azam Miro

Jundallah


'Northern Balochistan'

Front of Nimruz

Sardar Taj Mohamed Sanjarani

Baluchistan Political Parties



Balochistan National Party

Jamhoori Wattan Party

Balochistan National Movement

Baloch Students Organization

Baloch Students Organization- Awami

Baluchi Autonomist Movement

Millat Party

Awami National Party

Shaheed-e-Baluchistan



Shaheed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti

Shaheed Nawab Nowroz Khan

Shaeed Aslam

Shaeed Majeed Baloch

Shaheed Dad Shah

Shaheed Azam Miro

Shaheed Abdul Rashid Ghazi Mazari

Shaeed Umar Khan Baluch

Shaeed Fida Ahmad Baluch

Shaeed Ayub Boladi

Shaeed Hamid Baloch

Shaeed Rahim Zardkohi

Shaeed Beeberg Zardkohi

Shaeed Javid Ahktar Baloch.BSO

Shaeed Noor Ul Haq Baloch

Shaeed Asad Marri

See also



Balochistan (Iran) Main articles: History of Iranian Balochistan


Balochistan (Pakistan)

Conflict between Pakistan and Baloch warlords in Balochistan

Mehergarh

Bolan Pass

Perso-Baloch Boundary

Seistan Force

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