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Zhob

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a valley and river in the N.E. of Baluchistan. The Zhob is a large valley running from the hills near Ziarat first eastward and then northward parallel to the Indus frontier, till it meets the Gomal river at Khajuri Kach. It thus becomes a strategic line of great importance, as being the shortest route between the North-West Frontier Province and Quetta, and dominates all the Pathan tribes of Baluchistan by cutting between them and Aighanistan. Up to the year 1884 it was practically unknown to Europeans, but the Zhob Valley Expedition of that year opened it up, and in 1889 the Zhob Valley and Gomal Pass were taken under the control of the British Government. The Zhob Valley was the scene of punitive British expeditions in 1884 and 1890. In 1890 Zhob was formed into a district or political agency, with its headquarters at Fort Sandeman: pop. (1901) 3552. As reconstituted in 1903, the district has an area of 9626 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 69,718, mostly Pathans of the Kakar tribe.

See Sir T. H. Holdich's Indian Borderland (190t); Bruce's Forward Policy (1900); McFall's With the Zhob Field Force (1895); and Zhob District Gazetteer (Bombay, 1907).