Kohlu district: the Kahan and Kohlu valleys

Introduction and location

Kohlu is a district in the hilly east of Balochistan, among the southern ranges of the Koh-e-Suleman. The district headquarters, Kohlu town, stands on a plateau. Kahan lies in a separate valley to the south.

According to the 2023 census of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Kohlu district covers 7,610 square kilometres and has a population of 260,220: 136,243 men, 123,961 women and 16 transgender persons. The population density is about 34 persons per square kilometre. Only 7.29 per cent of people live in urban areas, and the average household has 6.8 members. The district had a population of 213,933 in 2017, an annual growth rate of 3.33 per cent.

The census table divides the district into five parts: Kahan sub-division (3,754 square kilometres, population 107,840), Mawand sub-division (2,915 square kilometres, 51,635), Kohlu sub-division (231 square kilometres, 48,050), Tambu sub-tehsil (536 square kilometres, 37,449) and Garsani sub-tehsil (174 square kilometres, 15,246). The district’s only urban area is Kohlu Municipal Committee, with a population of 18,978.

The Sibi Gazetteer of 1907, when Kohlu was a sub-tehsil of Sibi district, describes it as a triangular plateau about 3,900 feet high. According to it, the Suran hills separated it from Duki in the north, the Jandran range from Barkhan in the south and east, and the Koh-e-Sard mountains from the Marri country in the west. The largest seasonal stream of the valley was the Lahri, which the Marris called “Seenr”.

According to newspaper reports of the July 2026 administrative restructuring, Kohlu has been placed in a new Koh-e-Suleman Division along with Barkhan and upper (northern) Dera Bugti. The text of the notification is not yet before us, so this page follows the boundaries of the 2023 census.

History

According to the gazetteer, the Kohlu valley was first inhabited by the Bilidi Baloch, who left it about three hundred years earlier. The Zarkun then settled there. The earthquake of January 1852 destroyed the old town of Kahan.

According to the gazetteer, in January 1892 a jirga of Baloch and Punjab chiefs at Muranj decided that the valley should be placed in the government’s possession. A sub-tehsil was set up in Kohlu in May 1892.

People and languages

According to the 2023 census, 95.6 per cent of the district’s population (248,789 people) have Balochi as their mother tongue. Pashto is second, spoken by 10,324 people, about 4 per cent. The picture in Kohlu town is different: of its 18,978 residents, 7,176 (about 38 per cent) speak Pashto and 11,425 (about 60 per cent) speak Balochi. According to the gazetteer, the Marris speak an eastern dialect of Balochi with many Sindhi and Punjabi words. The religion table records 259,213 Muslims, 921 Christians and 23 Hindus.

In education and amenities, the district is among the lowest in the province. The literacy rate among the population aged over ten is 28.53 per cent: 32.65 per cent for men and 23.93 per cent for women. In Kohlu town the rate is 65.11 per cent. The provincial report places Kohlu among the districts where more than 70 per cent of children are out of school, where fewer than 20 per cent of households have electricity, and where fewer than 20 per cent of households have drinking water inside the home.

Economy

The district’s economy rests on agriculture and livestock. According to the gazetteer, the main crop of Kohlu tehsil in 1907 was rabi wheat, while jowar was sown mostly in the kharif season. Permanent water sources, namely 3 streams, 7 springs and 5 karezes, irrigated only 3 per cent of the total cultivation. The rest depended on rain and flood water held back by embankments. An estimate of 1904 put the tehsil’s livestock at about 640 camels, 1,980 cattle and 32,300 sheep and goats. The gazetteer describes the Kahan valley as a fertile valley about 12 miles long.

The same crops remain prominent today. In December 2019, locusts damaged wheat and onion crops in Mawand, Kahan, Oryani and other areas.

Places of interest

Kahan: According to the gazetteer, it was a small walled town on the banks of the Sohrab stream, in the shape of an irregular hexagon. The shrine of Bahawal Khan is in the same area.

Shrine of Tokali Mast: According to the gazetteer, the shrine of the faqir Tokali Mast is at Maidan Gari. He was a Sherani Marri who died in 1892, and the shrine had great local fame.

Cairns on the Kohlu-Barkhan route: According to the gazetteer, there are small heaps of stones and earth on this route. By tradition they mark a caravan that was buried in snow and destroyed in the time of Mahmud of Ghazni.