Puli Khumrī (), also spelled Pul-i-Khumri or Pol-e Khomri, is a city in northern

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 ...

. Puli Khumri is the capital and largest city of

Baghlan Province Baghlan ( Dari and ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan and located in northeastern Afghanistan. As of 2020, the province has a population of about 1,014,634. Its capital is Puli Khumri, but its name comes from the other major town in t ...

, whose name comes from the other major town in the province,

Baghlan Baghlan (Pashto and Dari: بغلان ''Baġlān'') is a city in northern Afghanistan, in the eponymous Baghlan Province. It is located three miles east of the Kunduz River, 35 miles south of Khanabad, and about 500 metres above sea level in t ...

. Puli Khumri has an estimated population of about 221,274 as of 2015, making it about the 9th-largest city of Afghanistan, and the second-largest city in northeastern Afghanistan after

Kunduz Kunduz (; ; ) is a city in northern Afghanistan and the capital of Kunduz Province. The city has an estimated population of about 268,893 as of 2015, making it about the List of cities in Afghanistan, seventh largest city of Afghanistan, and the ...

. It is a major

industrial city An industrial city or industrial town is a town or city in which the municipal economy, at least historically, is centered around industry, with important factories or other production facilities in the town. It has been part of most countries' ...

History

During the 1980s, Puli Khumri was officially granted the status of the capital of Baghlan province in place of the central city of Baghlan. This transition occurred under the influence of

Sayed Mansur Naderi Sayed Mansur Naderi is the incumbent Sayed of Kayan; leader of the Shi'a community of Afghanistan centred in Baghlan Province and also in other parts of Afghanistan. This community although Shia is smaller than the mainstream Twelver Shia communi ...

, son of

Sayed Kayan Sayed Kayan or Sayed of Kayan is a ruling title in northern areas of Afghanistan. Ismaili community in Afghanistan is led by this family of ''Syeds'' hailing from the historical valley of Kayan, Baghlan, Kayan Baghlan. Historical Background ...

, who held significant military and political power at the time. The relocation aimed to enhance public access to administrative offices, leveraging Puli Khumri's strategic location along the Kabul-Mazar highway. The cabinet of Dr. Najibullah, led by

Sultan Ali Keshtmand Sultan Ali Keshtmand (; born May 22, 1935, in Kabul), sometimes transliterated Kishtmand, was an Hazara communist politician, belonging to the Parcham faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). He served twice as Chairman o ...

, initially proposed this move through declaration number 492 on March 1, 1989. It was subsequently formalized by Dr. Najibullah through decree number 1603 on March 9, 1989. As of 2017,

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) ...

insurgents are active in the Dand-e-Shahabuddin part of Puli Khumri. On 5 May 2019,

members stormed the city's police headquarters, killing 13 police. On 1 September 2019, Taliban assaulted the city, but were repelled by the Afghan Army. On 16 January 2021, the district's NDS chief Fazal Wakilzada was killed in a Taliban attack. On 10 August 2021, Puli Khumri became the eighth provincial capital to be captured by the Taliban as part of their nationwide military offensive. On 13 October 2023, 7 people were killed and 15 injured in a

suicide bombing A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

at a

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

mosque carried out by

Islamic State – Khorasan Province The Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP or ISIS–K) is a regional branch of the Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist group Islamic State (IS) active in Central Asia, Central and South Asia, primarily Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uz ...

Geography

Puli Khumri, located about south of

, southeast of

Mazar-i-Sharif Mazar-i-Sharīf ( ; Dari and ), also known as Mazar-e Sharīf or simply Mazar, is the fifth-largest city in Afghanistan by population, with the estimates varying from 500,000-680,000. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highway ...

, and north of

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

, is a trading and transit hub in the region.

Land use

As of 2015, Puli Khumri had 6 districts and a total land area of 3,752 hectares. The total number of dwellings in the city was 24,586. Agricultural lands account for the largest land use in Puli Khumri (65%), with the majority of that land in Districts 3, 5, and 6. Districts 1 and 2 have the highest dwelling densities but District 5 is home to the most dwelling units. Puli Khumri has a diverse housing stock consisting of regular, irregular, and hillside houses as well as apartment buildings.

Climate

With an influence from the local steppe climate, Puli Khumri features a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

(''BSk'') under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

. The average temperature in Puli Khumri is 15.9 °C, while the annual precipitation averages 282 mm. July is the hottest month of the year with an average temperature of 28.5 °C. The coldest month January has an average temperature of 3.0 °C.

Demographics

Economy

There are two dams in Puli Khumri, which provide the necessary electricity.

's first

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

factory, Ghori I Cement Factory, was built in 1954 in Puli Khumri with financial support from

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. It is currently owned and operated by Afghan Invest Co., and operated by Ahmad Javid Jaihoon. The

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

is mined from the hill behind the factory. There is a

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

outside of the city in the village Kar-kar, but the production system is archaic. Agriculture is very important because of the rain and temperature;

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

, spices, and

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

are the main crops.

Provincial Reconstruction Team

The lead nation of the local

Provincial Reconstruction Team A Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) was a unit introduced by the United States government, consisting of military officers, diplomats, and reconstruction subject matter experts, working to support reconstruction efforts in unstable states. PRT ...

(PRT) was

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, which operated in the city from 2006 to March 2013. Previous to 2006, the lead nation was the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Electrical transmission lines built from Puli Khumri are now bringing a steady supply of electricity to

References

{{Baghlan Province Populated places in Baghlan Province Baghlan Province Provincial capitals in Afghanistan Cities in Afghanistan Populated places with period of establishment missing