Beautiful Balochistan – Quetta (Part 2)

  (Read Balochistan Part 1 Here) 

Quetta: An Amazing City

NOTE: Click on photo to enlarge 

The City 

Quetta, the largest city in Baluchistan is an old city with current population of approx 1.8 million. Quetta (the word derives from kwatta, meaning ‘Fort’ in Pushto) is surrounded by hills forming a natural fort.  It is the capital of Balochistan hence the heart of all political & financial activities in the province. 

1935 Earthquake 

Quetta city was completely destroyed & 40,000 people were killed in 1935 with a powerful earthquake. Quetta cantt & city are naturally divided by a water trench. City was destroyed by earthquake on one side of this trench but cantt remained intact. Earthquake centre was in Mach. 

Military in Quetta 

Due to its strategic importance, Quetta has always been a big center for army. Currently it has 2 division army, world renowned Army Staff College (established since 1907), the oldest arsenal depot (established 1886), EME Training Centre, and Infantry school. Quetta’s livelihood heavily depends on this army presence. 

Staff College is well reputed worldwide for army officers training. Famous generals (e.g. Montgomery, Rommel, etc) graduated from here. It is an unwritten must to graduate (complete staff course) from here to get promotion above Major’s rank in Pakistan army.  Admission is very competitive, an army officer can only appear four times in the admission test. 

Quetta cantt is one of the oldest & largest in Pakistan. Its location is very strategic due to its proximity to Iran, Afghanistan, China and Russian states. 

Balochistan Railway 

 Realizing this English brought a high military presence here and built a train line in 1886 which was one of the most difficult railway lines in the world at the time. This railway line’s history is quite fascinating. English faced a lot of challeneges while building it, including harsh desert conditions, tribal atacks & tunnel digging through mountains. The line goes through many tunnels. This is why there are two engines pulling the train to Quetta, actually one pulls and other one pushes from the back. The line was extended to Afghanistan & Iran and used for trade heavily. 

Quetta’s railway station bears a big plate on its entrance showing names of 139 railway employees died in the 1935 earth quake.

Wrong Day to Travel

The day we travelled back from Quetta to Lahore was the first anniversary of Akbar bugti’s death (August 2007). Security was on high alert. Whole Quetta city was empty and completely sealed off; train station was almost deserted. We made home safely but there were 3 bomb blasts on the very railway line the next day. The train was late, just by 6 hours!

We saw a bunch of 20 or 30 prorperly built mud houses with all facilities e.g. water, phone, electricity. But there was no human at all. Where were the inhabitants?? 

Aab-i Gum 

This station (below) is called “Aab-i Gum” meaning Lost Water in urdu. Natural Water used to travel over ground and then somehow go underground, hence the name Aab-i Gum. There is a famous urdu book “Aab-i Gum” by Mushtaq Ahmed Yousafi named after this place, well worth a read, infact one of my favourite. 

And lastly, the Hanna Lake. I was fascniated by the beauty of this place. 

Goodbye Quetta, Goodbye Balochistan!! 

(Read Balochistan Part 1 Here)