Las Bela

Las Bela (princely state)
Lasbela is a coastal district of Balochistan province of Pakistan. It became a separate district in Kalat division on 30 June 1954. The name is derived from the words Las which signifies a plain, the greater part of the area being a flat plain, and Bela which means "jungle" and is also the name of the principal town of the district. Uthal is the district headquarterHistory
Alexander the Great passed through Lasbela on his way back to Babylon after conquering Northwestern India. In 711 CE, the Arab general, Muhammad bin Qasim passed through Lasbela on his way to Sindh.
The area of the district was formerly a princely state of British India (Las – with Bela as capital), which later merged with Pakistan.
History
Northwestern India. In 711 CE, the Arab general, Muhammad bin Qasim passed through Lasbela on his way to Sindh.
The area of the district was formerly a princely state of British India (Las – with Bela as capital), which later merged with Pakistan
Historical Buildings and Archaeological Sites
At Bela:
Shah Jamai Mosque
Tomb of General Muhammad ibn Haroon
Tomb of Colonel Robert Sandeman
Karia Pir
Others
Sassi Waro-Chodo (Sassi's Spring), near Paboni Naka, about 68 km from Karachi.
Bakkar Buthi, a small Harappan site located in the remote mountainous area to the east of the Las Bela plain.

Sites of Interest
Shrines
Shrine of Shah Bilawal
Lahut-i-Lamakan
Kumb Shrine
Shireen and Farhad
Sassi and Punnu
Pir Fida Hussain
Pir Moosiani
Pir Mohiuddin
Mai Gondrani
Hinglaj

Geography

The main river is the Porali with its tributaries, Winder and Wirhab rivers.Other rivers are the Phor and Hingol which rise in Awaran District before flowing through Lasbela on their way to the Arabian Sea.

Demographics

The population of Lasbela was estimated to be over 700,000 in 2005. In 1998, the overall population was 98.33% Muslim. Of the remaining, 1.37% were Hindus and 0.14% Christian, with the rest belonging to various other religions.In 1998, about 37% of the population resided in the urban areas. In 1998, 22.3% of the population was literate with 32.16% of the males and 10.46% of the females. The majority of population speaks either Sindhi or Baluchi. Much of the population also speaks a language called Lasi, which is derived from Sindhi or Jadgali.


Lasi or Burfat ( لاسی) is a tribe settled in Lasbela District of Balochistan, Pakistan.
The term Lasi is a geographical name, which is applied to all the tribes other than Baloch and Brahvi, Med, Khoja and Hindus who are settled in Lasbela.
The population of Lasbela presents many features of special interest to the ethnologist. The first historical reference to the ancient population of Lasbela and Makran is to be found in Arrian, who divides the population into two distinct classes. The people of the coast whom he names the Ichthyophagoi or fish-eaters and the population of the interior, the Arabi the Oreitai and the Gadrosia of Gadrosia or Gedrosia. Several other authors have described the strange race of the Ichthyophagoi who are undoubtedly identifiable with the present fishermen of the coast.
The principal tribes among the Lasis claimto be descendants of the Sammas who formerly resided in Sindh. Their tribal names certainly indicate that many of them are of Hindu origin.
Afterwards, the district appears to have come under the influence of the Sammas, who asserted their independence when the power of the Abbaside caliphs declined. The Sumras gained a position of supremacy in the middle of the eleventh century. They were eventually overthrown by the Sammas under Jam Umar in 1333. The Sammas reigned till 1523 when they were defeated and their power was completely broken by Shah Hussain Argon.The succeeding period is again obscure. The chiefs of the Gujar, Ranjha, Gunga and Burfat tribes, who are still to be found in Lasbela, are said to have exercised a semi-independent power previous to the rise of the Aliani family of the Jamoot tribe, to which the present Jam of Lasbela belongs.
The principal Lasi tribes are only five in number, namely Jamot, Ranjha, Sheikh, Angaria and Burraf. These are called the Panjraj or the five tribal confederacies. Under each Raj are a large number of heterogeneous groups.

Balochistan

Balochistan

Is located at the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau and in the border region between Southwest, Central, and South Asia. It is geographically the largest of the four provinces at 347,190 km² or (134,051 square miles) of Pakistani territory; and composes 48% of the total land area of Pakistan. The population density is very low due to the mountainous terrain and scarcity of water. The southern region is known as Makran. The central region is known as Kalat.
The Sulaiman Mountains dominate the northeast corner and the Bolan Pass is a natural route into Afghanistan towards Kandahar, used as a passageway during the British campaigns to Afghanistan. Much of the province south of the Quetta region is sparse desert terrain with pockets of towns mostly near rivers and streams.
The capital city is Quetta, located in the most densely populated district in the northeast of the province. Quetta is situated in a river valley near the border with Afghanistan, with a road to Kandahar in the northwest.
At Gwadar on the coast the Pakistani government is currently undertaking a large project with Chinese help to build a large port. This is being done partially to provide the Pakistan Navy with another base, and to reduce Pakistan's and in particular Punjab's reliance on Karachi and Port Qasim, which ar History

History of Baluchistan

Baluchistan was the site of the earliest known farming settlements upon the Iranian plateau bordering South Asia, the earliest of which was Mehrgarh dated at 6500 BCE. Pakistani Balochistan corresponds to the ancient Achaemenid province of Gedrosia. Balochistan was sparsely populated by various tribes, possibly of Dravidian and Indo-Iranian origin, for centuries following the decline of the nearby Harappa-Mohenjo-daro civilisation to the east. Over time, Balochistan was invaded by various Eurasian groups including the Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Kushans, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, Mughals, Afghans, and the British. Aryan invasions appear to have led to the eventual demise of the Elamo-Dravidian[6] with the exception of the Brahui who may have arrived much later as did the Balochis themselves. The Balochs began to arrive from their homeland in northern Iran and appear to be an offshoot of the Kurdish tribes that would mainly populate the western end of the Iranian plateau. The Baloch tribes eventually became a sizeable group rivalled only by another Iranian group where Brohis and Pashtuns came under influences of Balochs.

Islamic arrival in Baluchistan

What is now Baluchistan province of Pakistan, in the 7th century was divided into two main regions, its south western parts were part of Kermān Province of the Persian Empire and north eastern region was part of the Persian province Sistan. The southern region was included in Makran. In early 644, Caliph Umar sent Suhail ibn Adi from Busra to conquer the Kerman region of Iran; he was made governor of Kerman. From Kerman he entered the western Baluchistan and conquered the region near to Persian frontiers.[7] South Western Baluchistan was conquered during the campaign in Sistan the same year. During Caliph Uthman’s reign in 652, Baluchistan was re-conquered during the campaign against the revolt in Kerman, under the command of Majasha ibn Masood, it was first time when western Baluchistan came directly under the Laws of Caliphate and gave tribute on agriculture.[8]In those days western Baluchistan was included in the dominion of Kerman. In 654 Abdulrehman ibn Samrah was made governor of Sistan, an Islamic army was sent under him to crush the revolt in Zarang, which is now in southern Afghanistan. Conquering Zarang a column moved north ward to conquer areas up to Kabul and Ghazni in Hindu Kush Mountains, while another column moved towards North western Baluchistan and conquered area up to the ancient city of Dawar and Qandabil (Bolan),[9] by 654 the whole of what is now Baluchistan province of Pakistan was under the rule of Rashidun Caliphate except for the well defended mountain town of QaiQan (now Kalat), which was conquered during Caliph Ali’s reign. [10] Abdulrehman ibn Samrah made Zaranj his provincial capital and remained governor of these conquered areas from 654 to 656, until Uthman was murdered. During the Caliphate of Ali, the areas of Baluchistan, Makran again broke into revolt. Due to civil war in the Islamic empire Ali was unable to deal with these areas until 660 when he sent a large force under the command of Haris ibn Marah Abdi towards Makran, Baluchistan and Sind. Haris ibn Marah Abdi arrived in Makran and conquered it by force then moved north ward to north eastern Baluchistan and re-conquered Qandabil (Bolan), then again moving south finally conquered Qaiqan (Kalat) after a fierce battle[11]. In 663 during the reign of Umayyad Caliph Muawiyah I, Muslim lost control of North eastern Baluchistan and Kalat when Haris ibn Marah and large part of army died in the battle field against a revolt in Kalat.[12] Muslim forces latter re-gained the control of the area during Umayyads reign. It also remained part of Abbasid Caliphate's empire.

History of Baluch people

Many Baluchs believe that their origins are Semitic and not Iranian contrary to linguistic and historical evidence. Baloch claim that they left their Aleppo homeland in Syria at some point during the 1st millennium CE and moved to Balochistan,[13] on the other hand it is considered more likely they are an Iranian group who have possibly absorbed some Arab ancestry and cultural traits instead, it is also believed that Baloch are of Arab blood, it could be they left the Arab world when Iraq broke from Persia in 652 AD and there is historical evidence that suggests they lived in (Khuzestan) and (Bushehr) before moving to Kerman and Hormozgan. In 15th century Mir Chakar Khan Rind became first king of Baluchistan. Balochistan subsequently was dominated by empires based in Iran and Afghanistan as well as the Mughal Empire based in India. Ahmed Shah Durrani annexed the region as part of a "greater" Afghanistan. The area would eventually revert to local Baloch control, while parts of the northern regions would continue to be dominated by Pashtun tribes.

During the period of the British Raj, there were four Princely states in Balochistan: Makran, Kharan, Las Bela and Kalat. In 1876 Sir Robert Sandeman concluded a treaty with the Khan of Kalat and brought his territories - including Kharan, Makran, and Las Bela - under British suzerainty. After the Second Afghan War of 1878-80, the Treaty of Gandamak concluded in May 1879, the Afghan Emir ceded the districts of Quetta Pishin,Sibi, Harnai, and Thal Chotiali to the British. In 1883 the British leased the Bolan Pass, southeast of Quetta, from the Khan of Kalat on a permanent basis. In 1887 some areas of Balochistan were declared British territory. In 1893, Sir Mortimer Durand negotiated an agreement with Amir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan to fix the Durand Line running from Chitral to Balochistan to as the boundary between the Afghans and the British.
There were two devastating earthquakes in Balochistan during British colonial rule: The 1935 Balochistan Earthquake devastated Quetta and the 1945 Balochistan Earthquake, with its epicentre in Makran region, was felt in other regions of South Asia.
On 15 June 2006, an estimated 600 fighters, led by three commanders, agreed to lay down their weapons after talks with Shoaib Nausherwani, Baluchistan's minister for internal affairs, in Dera Bugti district.[14] On August 26, Balochistan tribal leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was killed in airstrikes carried out by the Pakistani military.
In 1998 Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in Ras Koh and in the Kharan desert, both in the Kharan District in north-western Balochistan. After Musharraf's coup against the Nawaz Sharif Government, the separatist insurgency resurfaced. Quetta zhob and sibi division 100% pashtuns population areas were cobined with kalat state of union to the province of Balochistan after the disantigration of one unit formula in pakistan , before it pashtuns areas South Pashtoonkhwa were never the not the part of balochistan
e currently the only major ports.

Major cities

Barkhan
Chaman
Dera Allah Yar
Dera Murad Jamali
Gwadar
Hub
Kalat
Kharan
Khuzdar
Loralai
Mastung
Nushki
Pasni
Quetta
Sibi
Turbat
Zhob

Economy

The economy of the province is largely based upon the production of natural gas, coal and minerals. Outside Quetta, the infrastructure of the province is gradually developing but still lags far behind other parts of Pakistan. Tourism remains limited but has increased due to the exotic appeal of the province. Limited farming in the east as well as fishing along the Arabian Sea coastline are other forms of income and sustenance for the local populations. Due to the tribal lifestyle of many Baluch and Brahui, animal husbandry is important as are trading bazaars found throughout the province.
Though the province remains largely underdeveloped, there are currently several major development projects in progress in Balochistan, including the construction of a new deep sea port at the strategically important town of Gwadar.[ The port is projected to be the hub of an energy and trade corridor to and from China and the Central Asian republics. There is considerable Chinese involvement in the project, leading some to consider Gwadar it as the Chinese outpost on the Arabian Sea, The total cost of the project is estimated at more than US$2 billion. China has also invested in a coastal highway to link Gwadar with Pakistan's largest city, Karachi.
Further west is the Mirani Dam multipurpose project, on the River Dasht, 50 kilometres west of Turbat in the Makran Division. It will provide dependable irrigation supplies for the development of agriculture and add more than 35,000 km² of arable land. There is also Chinese involvement in the nearby Saindak gold and copper mining project.

Climate

Very cold winters and hot summers characterise the climate of the upper highlands. Winters of the lower highlands vary from extremely cold in the northern districts to mild conditions closer to the Makran coast. Summers are hot and dry, especially the arid zones of Chaghai and Kharan districts. The plain areas are also very hot in summer with temperatures rising as high as 120 °F (50 °C). Winters are mild on the plains with the temperature never falling below the freezing point. The desert climate is characterised by hot and very arid conditions. Occasionally strong windstorms make these areas very inhospitable

Demographics

Balochistan has a population of around 10 million inhabitants. Overall, the Baloch and Brohi tribes comprise 62% of the province's population. The rest are mainly Pashtuns, Hazaras and Sindhis. Baloch are concentrated in the sparsely populated north-west, west, east and south; Brohis in the centre of the province, while the Pashtuns are the majority in the north. Quetta, the capital of the province, has a Hazara, Pashtun majority with Baloch, and Punjabi minorities. Near the Kalat region and other parts of the province there are significant numbers of Brahui speakers. Along the coast various Makrani Balochis predominate. In addition, 769,000 Afghan refugees can be found in the province including Pashtuns, Tajiks, and Hazaras. Many Sindhi farmers have also moved to the more arable lands in the east. There are also a growing number of other(s) ethnic groups consisting of Kurdish, Panjabi, Mohajir and Iranians who have made Balochistan their home in recent decades.

Baloch Students Organization

The Baloch Students Organization or BSO was founded by Khair Jan Baluch in 1967 as a separatist militant group in Pakistani Balochistan. He organized the guerilla group for the 1973-1977 insurgency. After 1979 the group members fled to hills and trained small groups for guerilla warfare. Today the group is divided into serial groups.
But nowadays the greater and the powerful group of the Baloch Students is leading by Bashir Ziab Baloch he is the Chairman of Bso (Azad) which is the follower of Baloch liberation Army's ideology.