Baluchistan

BALUCHISTAN, A SOUTHWESTERN province of PAKISTAN, extends from the Gomal River in the northeast to the ARABIAN SEA in the south and from the borders of IRAN and AFGHANISTAN in the west and northwest to the Sulaiman Mountains and Kirthar hills in the east. In its continuity to the west lies Iranian Baluchistan. The land of Baluchistan is exceedingly inhospitable; geologists have even compared the landscape with Mars.

Baluchistan can be divided into two distinct regions. To the northeast, hedged in between Afghanistan and the Indus plains, stretch long ridges of rough highlands. The average breadth of this highland lobe is 150 mi (241 km), but in the north it narrows to less than 100 mi (161 km) along the Gomal River. This area is bounded by the Sulaiman range on the east and the Toba-Kakar range in the northwest. The main central range of Sulaiman, decreasing in height from north to south, forms the dominant geographical feature of the northeast Baluchistan. This region is mainly inhabited by an ethnic group, the Pathans.

The highlands of Sarawan and Jhalawan in Kalat is a block of territory measuring about 300 mi (483 km) by 300 mi (483 km), which is primarily the home of the Brahui and the Balochi, but with a great variety of physical conditions and inhabitants. The Hab River between the Pab and the Kirthar ranges, the Purali or Porali, draining the low-lying flats of Las Bela, the Hingol, and the Dusht in Makaran are all considerable streams, draining into the Arabian Sea and forming important arteries in the network of internal communications.

Between southwestern Baluchistan and the northeastern lobe is the wedge-shaped Kachhi plain, which is a land of dust storms and violent winds. Here temperature does not fall below 100 degrees F (38 degree C) in summer and drops below the freezing point in winter. The mountain ranges of Baluchistan are formed of Cretaceous and Tertiary beds, forming part of an extensive system of Tertiary (Alpine-Himalayan) times.