KHYBER AGENCY

Khyber Agency has an area of 991 square miles. The majority of the tribes in this agency are Afridis, of which there are eight major sections. HOwever, there are important pockets of Mullagoris (Mohmand) Shilmanis, and Shinwaries, the last around and in Landi Kotal on the Pakistan - Afghanistan border. The afridis are famed as the tribe that control the Khyber Pass and also as the inhabitants of what is still one of the most inaccessible areas, Afridi Tirah. This strategic situation has enabled the afridis to force every conqueror in history passing through the khyber to come to terms with them. They have a formidable battle record for strategy and tenacity in the mountains. They once annihilated an entire Mughal army of Aurangzeb's. The agency headquareters are in Peshawar in winter when the tribes migrate to the comparatively warmer Khajuri plains just beyond the Bara market town (5 miles from Peshawar). New water schemes on the Bara river are converting the semi arid and barren Khajuri Plains into valuable land for cultivation and habitation. Brick houses are appearing at a rapid rate. The summer headquarters are in Landi Kotal on the international border. Jamrud (deriving its name from the iranian emperor jamshed who ruled here some 2000 years ago) sits at the mouth of the Khyber Pass about ten miles from peshawar. A sikh fort that looks remarkably like a battleship still dominates the Jamrud area. The Kuki Khel afridis live here. Shagai fort, ten miles from Jamrud, with its squash courts and swimming pool, is one of the best mantained and striking on the frontier. Ali Masjid (Hazrat Ali, the son in law of the Holy Prophet is said to have prayed here) is the highest point and key to the pass. The pass itself is about 25 miles long. The Tahtarra range dominates the entire pass and is clearly visible from Peshawar and its environs. The first political officer was Major Cavagnari, appointed in 1879 and the first Political Agent, Major G. Roos Keppell (1902).

The Khyber Pass:

Until recently, The Khyber Pass was closed to foreigners. Nowadays, they have to apply to the Political agent. Let alone the Foreigners, even Pakistanis have to apply to the Political Agent. The Afghan border at Torkham is 56 kilometres (35 miles) from Peshawar, about an hour’s drive. The road runs west from the cantonment and through University Town, after which the fields on either side of the road are covered with refugee camps. After the camps are the compounds of Pathan tribesmen, their high mud walls furnished with turrets and gunslits, their entrances guarded by huge corrugated-iron gates.
Jamrud Fort, 18 kilometres (11 miles) from Peshawar and at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, is as far as you can go without a permit. The fort, coarsely constructed of stone daubed with mud plaster, was built by the Sikhs in 1823 on the site of an earlier fort. The modern stone arch spanning the road dates from 1964.
The eastern end of the pass is wide and flat, bounded on either side by low, stony hills. Every small hillock in the area is capped with a picket manned by the Frontier Force. The road zig-zags up, passing two viewpoints that look back into the Vale of Peshawar, until it reaches Shagai Fort, which was built by the British in the 1920s. It then starts down into a small valley in which stand fortified Pashtun houses and the Ali Masjid. Perched high above this mosque on a commanding spur is the Ali Mesjid Fort, which overlooks the entire length of the pass and guards the gorge that is its narrowest point. The road here hugs a narrow ledge beside the river bed in the shadow of high cliffs on either side. Until the way was widened, two laden camels could not squeeze past each other, and even now the road is one way. The return road and the railway follow separate ledges higher up on the opposite cliff, affording a less exciting view of the gorge.
In the cemetery here are the graves of British soldiers killed in the Second Afghan War of 1879. Regimental insignia are carved and painted on to the rock faces at several places along the road, with the Gordon Highlanders, the South Wales Borderers, and the Royal Sussex, Cheshire and Dorset regiments standing in one doughty group. After the gorge, the pass opens out into a wide fertile valley dotted with Pashtun villages. True to form, however, these villages look more like forts, with high, crenellated mud walls running between watch- towers pierced with narrow gunslits.
Sphola Stupa, a Buddhist ruin dating from the second to the fifth centuries AD, stands to the right of the road and above the railway at the village of Zarai, 25 kilometres (16 miles) from Jamrud. The stupa has a high hemispherical dome resting on a three-tiered square base. Some beautiful Gandharan sculptures were found here when the site was excavatcd at the beginning of this century. Some of the finds are now in the Peshawar Museum. The side of the stupa lacing the road has been restored.
Landi Kotal, at the end of the railway line and eight kilometres (five miles) from the border, is a smugglers’ town. Electrical goods, cloth and drugs are the main commodities in the bazaar below the road to the left. The road forks here: right to the Khyber Rifles’ headquarters, left to the border. A viewpoint beyond the town looks out across tank traps of closely packed cement pyramids to the border post at Torkhain (Also known as the 'Dragon's Teeth'), the last oasis of green before the barren brown of the Afghan plain.
On a hilltop to the left of Torkham is the ruined Kafir Fort, a Hindu relic of the ninth century AD. On this ridge in 1919, the British and Afghans fought one of the last engagements of the Third Afghan War. The top of the hill is now Afghan territory, with a commanding view down on Pakistani installations and forts.

The Khyber Steam Safari:

For rail enthusiasts, the Khyher Railway from Peshawar to Landhi Kotal is a three-star attraction. The British built it in the l920s at the then enormous cost of more than two million pounds. It passes through 34 tunnels totalling five kilometres (three miles) and over 92 bridges and culverts. Two or three coaches are pulled and pushed by two oil fired engines. At one point, the track climbs 130 metres in little more than a kilometre (425 feet in 0.7 miles) by means of the heart stopping Changai Spur. This is a W-shaped section of track with two cliff-hanging reversing stations, at which the train wheezes desperately before shuddering to a stop and hacking away from the brink.

The Pakistan government has dubbed it as 'The Khyber Steam Safari Train'. Tourists in bundles apply for the ticket.