Barkhan district: fertile valley at the foot of Koh-e-Suleman on the Punjab border

Introduction and location

Barkhan is a district in north-east Balochistan on the border with Punjab. According to the Balochistan High Court’s district judiciary page, it is bounded by Punjab province to the east, Dera Bugti to the south, Kohlu to the west, Loralai to the north-west and Musakhel to the north. Its headquarters is Barkhan town. The same page says Barkhan was made a separate district on 31 December 1991. Before that it was a tehsil of Loralai. (The High Court’s Loralai page gives the year of the division as 1992.) According to reports of the administrative restructuring of July 2026, Barkhan has been placed in a new Koh-e-Suleman Division along with Kohlu and upper (northern) Dera Bugti. The text of the notification is not before us, so this page follows the boundaries of 2023.

According to the 2023 census of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the district covers 3,514 square kilometres and has a population of 210,249: 109,624 men, 100,617 women and 8 transgender persons. Density is about 60 persons per square kilometre. Only 6.86 per cent of people live in an urban area, namely Barkhan Municipal Committee (14,425 people). A household has 9.1 members on average, the highest of any Balochistan district in the census table. The population was 171,025 in 2017, and the annual growth rate was 3.51 per cent. In the table the whole district forms a single tehsil, Barkhan.

According to the 1907 Loralai Gazetteer, Barkhan tehsil covered 1,317 square miles and its headquarters stood about 3,650 feet above sea level. The tehsil consisted of a central valley, Barkhan, and smaller valleys running parallel to it, Baghao, Taghao, Rakhni, Chacha and Mat, separated by low hills. The gazetteer describes the soil of these valleys as “extremely fertile”. The hills form part of the Koh-e-Suleman range. Most of the water is carried by the Kaha river, formed by the Rakhni and Han seasonal streams.

History

According to the gazetteer, the name “Barkhan” comes from “Baru Khan”, the old name of the upper part of the valley. It was named after Baru, founder of the Baru Zai family of the Panni tribe, which either administered the area for the rulers of Sibi or owned it.

The inhabitants of the valley are called Khetrans. According to the gazetteer, the tribe is divided into three main sections: Dhara, Ispani and Phulyat. Citing Dr Duke, it says the name “Khetran” means cultivator.

The administration of Barkhan changed several times in the British period. According to the gazetteer, in 1884 the management of the Khetran tribe was transferred from Punjab to the Baluchistan Agency. In 1887 the area was added to the Thal Chotiali Agency and made a separate tehsil. In 1890 the tehsil went to the Zhob Agency, in April 1892 it returned to Thal Chotiali, and in October 1903 it became part of the new Loralai district.

People and languages

In the 2023 census table on mother tongue, 207,354 people in the district, about 98.6 per cent, are recorded as speaking Balochi. The table has no separate column for Khetrani. Speakers of Saraiki (1,274) and Pashto (1,138) are each less than one per cent. According to the gazetteer, the local people spoke a dialect called “Barazai or Khetrani”. According to the religion table, 209,755 residents are Muslim and 462 are Christian.

According to the gazetteer, the tehsil had a population of 14,922 in 1901, including 764 Hindus, who were mostly traders. The larger groups included the Khetran sections Phulyat (5,108), Ispani (4,055) and Dhara (3,705), and the Bozdar (431) and Leghari (309) Baloch.

In education, Barkhan is among the weaker districts of the province. According to the census, the literacy rate among the population aged ten and above is 33.62 per cent: 41.63 per cent among men and 24.93 per cent among women. There are 46,164 out-of-school children aged 5 to 16, of whom 28,083 are girls. According to the provincial report, Barkhan is one of three districts where fewer than 20 per cent of households have drinking water inside the home, and only 28.5 per cent of households have a toilet.

Economy

Barkhan’s economy rests on agriculture and livestock. According to the gazetteer, in 1907 some 79 per cent of cultivation depended on flood water, 10 per cent on rain and 11 per cent on permanent sources (six rivers, 23 springs and five wells). Wheat in the rabi season and jowar in the kharif season were the main crops. By an estimate of 1904, the local people owned about 55,000 sheep and goats and 9,853 cattle. The orchards of Haji Kot and Chuhar Kot grew almonds, pomegranates, peaches, apricots, apples, plums, figs and grapes.

Handicrafts have also marked the valley out. According to the gazetteer, Haji Kot was known for its bags, carpets, embroidered shoes, boxes and horse saddlery. The Imperial Gazetteer (1908) says that “Barkhan rugs are well known” but that their quality had declined.

According to the High Court’s Loralai page, people still earn their living from agriculture and livestock. It mentions wheat, tomatoes, fodder, vegetables, jowar, onions, garlic and melon, and among fruits apples, almonds, plums, apricots, pomegranates and peaches.

Places of interest

Haji Kot: According to the gazetteer, this village lies about two miles north-east of Barkhan, the headquarters. About 150 years before 1907, Sardar Alu Khan Mazarani founded it as “Kot Alu”. After his death it was named Haji Kot after his brother, Mir Haji. It was the residence of the Khetran chief.

Chuhar Kot: According to the gazetteer, this village stands on high ground two miles east of Haji Kot. Sardar Garazu Khan Mazarani founded it about 200 years earlier and named it after his son, Chuhar Khan. Its stone towers made it a strong settlement.

Leghari Kot and shrines: The gazetteer describes Leghari Kot as the oldest village of the Leghari of Barkhan. It consisted of a mud fort built on a mound. Two well-known shrines of the tehsil are those of Pir Shah Mahmood at Dathi and Pir Lakha at Leghari Kot.