Kalafgan District is a district of

Takhar Province Takhar (Dari/Pashto: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeast of the country next to Tajikistan. It is surrounded by Badakhshan in the east, Panjshir in the south, and Baghlan and Kunduz in the west. The ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. The district is well governed, with self-governance in parts of Kalafgan because of how remote they are. 42 villages are located in the district. In 2017, Kalafgan was considered to be under full control by the

Afghan Government The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and informally known as the Taliban government, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is ...

. However, the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

had taken full control by August 2021.

Geography

Kalafgan has an area of 479 square kilometers, comparatively equivalent to the area of

Cape Barren Island Cape Barren Island, officially truwana / Cape Barren Island, is a island in Bass Strait, off the north-east coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is the second-largest island of the Furneaux Group, with the larger Flinders Island to the north, and ...

. The district has access to a good road, as it lies along the highway linking the provincial capitals of

Taloqan Taloqan (, also transcribed Taleqan or Taluqan) is the capital of Takhar Province, in northeastern Afghanistan. It is located in the Taluqan District. The population was estimated as 196,400 in 2006. In 2021, the Taliban gained control of ...

and

Fayzabad, Badakhshan Fayzabad also spelled Feyzabad or Faizabad () is a city in northeastern Afghanistan, with a population of around 39,555 people. It is the provincial capital and largest city of Badakhshan province. It is situated in Fayzabad district and is at a ...

. There are two rivers flowing through Kalafgan— one that flows from the southeast to the northwest that eventually joins the Kokcha River, and a smaller river that flows through the southeast portion of the district that flows to the

Khanabad River The Khānabād River (; ) flows in the provinces of Takhar and Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. The Khanabad is a tributary of the Kunduz River, which is in turn a tributary of the Amu River. Course The Khanabad rises in the southeast of Takhar ...

. Kalafgan is bordered by four other districts: Rustaq District to the north, Kishim District to the east, Farkhar District to the south, and Taluqan District to the west. Kishim is located in

Badakhshan Province Badakhshan Province (Dari: بدخشان) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan in the north and the Pakistani regions of Lower and Upper C ...

, with all other districts being located in Takhar Province. The Kokcha River forms the border between Rustaq and Kalafgan.

History

The district was created as part of the first 325 district set in 1973, and was controlled by

Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

soon after the start of the

Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War took place in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 46-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic o ...

. Kalafgan was initially controlled by

Jamiat-e Islami Jamiat-e-Islami (also rendered as Jamiati Islami; ), sometimes shortened to Jamiat, is a predominantly Afghan Tajik political party and former paramilitary organisation in Afghanistan. It is the oldest and largest functioning political part ...

but switched to Junbesh-i Melli during the 1990s. During the

Afghan Civil War (1996–2001) The 1996–2001 Afghan Civil War, also known as the Third Afghan Civil War, took place between the Taliban's conquest of Kabul and their establishing of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on 27 September 1996, and the US and UK invasion of Afgh ...

, only one village was controlled by the

briefly in 2001. The Taliban had not been a strong presence in the (formerly) relatively peaceful district, with only two incidents from 2018 to May 2020. However, the district was taken by the

by August 2021.

Demographics

Kalafgan has a population of 39171, with a sex ratio of 101 males for every 100 females. Most of the district is made up of

Uzbeks The Uzbeks () are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, being among the largest Turkic ethnic groups in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakhs, Kazakh and Karakalpaks, Karakalpak ...

. The median age is 15.3, with about 50% of the population employed. There are about 5760 households in Kalafgan, with an average size of 6.8 people.

References

{{Authority control Districts of Takhar Province