Pasni

Gwadar Port looking towards the Gulf of Oman

Pasni (Urdu: پسنى‎), is a medium-sized town and a fishing port in Gwadar District, Balochistan, Pakistan. Its population is around 33.000.^[1] It is located on the Makran coast on Arabian Sea about 300 km from Karachi. Administratively, Pasni is the headquarters of the Pasni sub-division ofGwadar district that includes Pasni and Ormara Tehsils (tehsil – county) as well as Astola Island which lies 40 km ESE of Pasni, in the Arabian Sea. The city of Pasni is itself administratively subdivided into two Union Councils.^[2]

Topography

The topography of the area is marked by low jagged hills of the Makran Coastal Range, while flat land is more common towards the coast. Jabal Zarain is a small hill astride a promontory (Cape or Ras Jaddi) south of Pasni and marks the highest point (416′ ASL) in the area. The unspoilt and pristine beaches of Pasni offer some of the most enchanting sceneries along the Arabian Sea. Shadi Kaur (river) fed by adjoining rain water streams, drains into the Arabian Sea just north of the town. Vegetation is sparse and consists mostly of hardy desert shrubs. Most of the non-marine edible products are brought in from Turbat as well as faraway Karachi.

Pasni town, like the rest of Makran Coast, is affected by a seismic fault line (Makran Accretionary Front) caused by the northward movement (40–50 mm/year) of the Arabian Plate against theEurasian Plate. Tectonic activity emanating from this subduction zone in the Arabian Sea causes occasional, low intensity quakes. On 28 Nov, 1945, a tsunami, triggered by a submarine earthquake (7.8 Richter), completely destroyed Pasni town.

Demography

Various kinship groups exist side by side in Pasni. These include Rais, Khodai^{[disambiguation needed]}, Kalmati, Sangur, and Shahzada^{[disambiguation needed]} who belong to traditional ruling communities and currently, tend to dominate land ownership and the fishing industry. Pasni also has some other castes such as Barr, Jadgaal, Wadaila people living in this small town, but the working classes have traditionally comprised Medh, Darzada, Push, Maqsoodi and Naqeeb, some of whom are groups that were historically slaves of the ruling families. People of East African ancestry commonly known as ‘Sheedis‘ can also be found in Pasni in small numbers; this African lineage is found at low frequency in the rest of Makran, as well as Karachi. ‘Sheedis’ are mostly descended from female slaves brought in as concubines in the early 19th century, when slave trade flourished under Omani Sultans whose suzerainty extended over Gwadar till 1958. [1]

Facilities

The town houses a modern fish harbour and Port of Pasni, with fishing being the main occupation of the town dwellers. Frozen catch is also sent to Turbat and Karachi for sale in the larger markets.

A joint-user airfield is shared by Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Pakistan Navy and civil aviation. PAF as well as PN-Aviation operational facilities are housed nearby. Daily commercial flights link the town with Karachi.

In 2008, the government approved the construction of Shadi Kaur storage dam near Pasni, which is expected to alleviate some of the power deficiency of the region.^[3]

History

Other than being a small fishing village, the town does not figure much in history. Alexander the Great is said to have stopped at Pasni (called ‘Cysa’ in Arrian’s treatise Indica) while unsuccessfully trying to rendezvous with his admiral, Nearchus, during a disastrous exodus via Makran after the Indian Campaign (325 BC). According to one theory, Admiral Nearchus’ well-stocked fleet was supposed to have continuously provisioned Alexander’s army as the latter marched West along the barren coast towards Persia. In the event, a major portion of Alexander’s route through Makran (Bela-Averan-Hoshab-Turbat and then south to Pasni-Gwadar) turned out to be much further inland than expected, apparently due to faulty knowledge of the terrain.[2]

An unexplored Harappan-era settlement known as Sokhta Koh is tucked away in the low hills, about 25 km north of Pasni. It is conjectured that this was an ancient Harappan outpost which traded luxury wares with Mesopotamia and Persian Gulf settlements.

The town of Pasni, along with Gwadar, were burned by the Portuguese in 1581, having had some violent encounters with the Kalmatis in the area.^[4] The town was attacked again, by Baloch rebels during the 1898 Baloch uprising; the town was looted, and the telegraph lines running to Gwadar severed.^[4]

Beautiful View of Makran Coastal Highway

Beautiful View of Makran Coastal Highway

Makran

Makran (Urdu: مکران‎) (pronounced [mæk’rɑːn]) is a semi-desert coastal strip in the south of Sindh and Balochistan, in Pakistan and Iran, along the coast of the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. The name Makran derives from Maka, borne by an overlapping satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire.

 

Achaemenid era

Maka was an important early eastern satrapy of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Makra corresponds to modern day Bahrain, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates, plus the northern half of Oman as well as Balochistan and the Sindh province of Pakistan.^[1]Cyrus the Great united several ancient Iranian tribes to create an empire.

 

The word Maka later became Makran as it is common in closely related ancient Avestan and Old Persian languages to use “an” and “ran” at the end of plurals.^[2] The Babylonians had also made voyages using Maka to communicate with India.^[3] After Cyrus’ death Darius I of Persia succeeded his throne. According to Greek historian Herodotus, Darius wanted to know more about Asia. He wished to know where the “Indus (which is the only river save one that produces crocodiles) emptied itself into the sea”.^[1] After personally leading his elite forces, whose ranks were restricted to those with Persian, Mede or Elamite ancestry, to fight the invading Scythians, he led another conquest towards South Asia.^[4][5][6] where he conquered Sindh in 519 BC and constituted it as his 20th Satrapy and made use of the ocean there.^[7][8] After the fall of Achaemenid Empire, Alexander also used Maka during his conquest and marched through a harsh desert path in Makran where he lost a significant number of soldiers but did not come across any Baloch force during his conquest except some coastal inhabitants. The harsh desert path is often mistaken as the whole of Makran region.

 

Herodotus on several occasions mentions the contribution of “Mykian” that inhabited the eastern portion of the Achaemenid empire.^[9] They are mentioned as “the men from Maka” in daiva inscriptions. The “Daiva inscription” is one of the most important of all Achaemenid inscriptions. They also took part in army of Xerxes the Great at the battle of Thermopylae. The Mykians are also thought to be responsible for many inventions like qanats and underground drainage galleries that bring water from an aquifer on the piedmont to the gardens or palm groves on the plains. These inventions were very important reasons behind the success of the empire. The Mykians of the other side of ancient Maka, the present day region of Balochistan and Sindh had later taken independence because they are not mentioned in the book written by Arrian of Nicomedia about campaigns of Alexander the great but he only mentions the Oman side of Maka which he calls “Maketa”. The reasons for this may have been the arguably unjust rule of Xerxes.^[10][10][11]

 

 Buddhism and Hinduism in the seventh century

Further evidence in the Chachnama makes perfectly clear that many areas of Makran as of Sindh had a largely Buddhist population . When Chach marched to Armabil , this town is described as having been in the hands of a Buddhist Samani (Samani Budda) a descendent of the agents of Rai Sahiras who had been elevated for their loyalty and devotion, but who later made themselves independent. The Buddhist chief offered his alligience to Chach when the latter was on his way to Kirman in 631 .The same chiefdom of Armadil is referred to by Huen Tsang 0-Tien -p-o-chi-lo, located at the high road running through Makran , and he also describes it as predominantly Buddhist , thinly populated though it was , it had no less than 80 Buddhist convents with about 5000 monks . In effect at eighteen km north west of Las Bela at Gandakahar , near the ruins of an ancient town are the caves of Gondrani, and as their constructions show these caves were undoubtedly Buddhist .Traveling through the Kij valley further west (then under the government of Persia) Huien Tsang saw some 100 Buddhist monasteries and 6000 priests . He also saw several hundred Deva temples in this part of Makran , and in the town of Su-nu li-chi-shi-fa-lo-which is probably Qasrqand- he saw a temple of Maheshvara Deva , richly adorned and sculptured . There is thus very wide extension of Indian cultural forms in Makran in the seventh century , even in the period when it fell under Persian sovereignty . By comparison in more recent times the last place of Hindu pilgrimage in Makran was Hinglaj, 256 km west of present day Karachi in Las Bela.^[12]

The Historian Andre Wink has recorded Hiuen Tsang‘s notings on the language and script in use in Makran .

Hiuen Tsang considered the script which was in use in Makran to be ‘much the same as India’, but the spoken language ‘differed a little from that of India^[13]

 

 Islamic conquest

 

The first Islamic conquest of Makran took place during the Rashidun Caliphate in the year 643 A.D. Caliph Umar’s governor of Bahrain Usman ibn Abu al-Aas, who was on his campaign to conquer the southern coastal areas of Iran send his brother Hakam ibn Abu al-Aas to raid the Makran region, the campaign was not meant for whole scale invasion but merely was a raid to check the potential of the local inhabitants. The raid was successful^[14] In late 644 A.D Caliph Umar sent an army for whole scale invasion of Makkuran under the command of Hakam ibn Amr. Reinforcement from Kufa joined him under the command of Shahab ibn Makharaq and Abdullah ibn Utban, the commander of campaign in Karman, also joined them, no strong resistance was faced by them in Makran until the Hindu King of Rai Kingdom in Sind, along with his army having contingents from Makran and Sind stopped them near River Indus. In mid 644, Battle of Rasil was fought between Radhisun Caliphate and Rai Kingdom where Raja’s forces were defeated and retreated to eastern bank of river Indus. Raja’s army included War elephants, and they didn’t make any trouble for the Muslims veterans who handled War elephants during the conquest of Persia. According to the orders of Caliph Umar the war elephants were sold in Islamic Persia and the cash was distributed among the soldiers as a share in booty.^[15] In response of Caliph Umar’s question about the Makran region, the Messenger from Makkuran who bring the news of the victory told him:

O Commander of the faithful! It’s a land where the plains are stony; Where water is scanty; Where the fruits are unsavory Where men are known for treachery; Where plenty is unknown; Where virtue is held of little account; And where evil is dominant; A large army is less for there; And a less army is use less there;
The land beyond it, is even worst (referring to Sind)

Umar looked at the messenger and said: “Are you a messenger or a poet? He replied “Messenger”. Thereupon Caliph Umar, after listening to the unfavorable situations for sending an army instructed Hakim bin Amr al Taghlabi that for the time being Makkuran should be the easternmost frontier of the Islamic empire, and that no further attempt should be made to extend the conquests. Thereupon one of the commanders of Islamic army in Makran said the following verses:

If the Commander of faithful wouldn’t have stopped us from going beyond, so we would have bought our forces to the temple of prostitutes.^[16]

Referring to the Hindu Temple in interior Sind where prostitutes used to give a part of their earning as alms. It remainned the part of Umayyad Caliphate and Abbasid Caliphate and was also ruled by Muslim Turks, Persians and Afghans. It was conquered by Mongols in 13th century A.D, and in 16th century A.D it became part of Mughal empire, it remained so until it came under the rule of British Empire.

  Balochi attack on Mahmud Ghazni

Baloch raiders plundered Mahmud of Ghaznis ambassador between Tabbas and Khabis and in revenge his son Masud defeated them at the latter place ,which lies at the foot of the Karman Mountains on the edge of the desert ^[17]

  Modern era

The narrow coastal plain rises very rapidly into several mountain ranges. Of the 1,000 km coastline, about 750 km is in Pakistan. The climate is very dry with very little rainfall. Makran is very sparsely inhabited, with much of the population being concentrated in a string of small ports including Chabahar, Gwatar, Jiwani, Gwadar (not to be confused with Gwatar), Pasni, Ormara and many smaller fishing villages.

 

The coast of Makran possesses only one island, Astola Island, near Pasni, and several insignificant islets. The coastline can be divided into an eastern lagoon coastline and a western embayed coastline. The main lagoons are Miani Hor and Kalamat Hor. The main bays of the embayed coast are Gwadar West Bay and Gwatar Bay. This latter bay shelters a large mangrove forest and the nesting grounds of endangered turtle species. For irrigation, flood prevention and water supply to Gawadar city Mirani Dam has also been built.

From the 15th century onward, the area was ruled by the Rind tribe which was headed by Mir Chakar Rind. In the late 18th century, the Khan of Kalat is said to have granted sanctuary at Gwadar to one of the claimants for the throne of Muscat. When that claimant became Sultan, he kept hold of Gwadar, installing a governor, who eventually led an army to conquer the city of Chabahar some 200 kilometres to the west.

 

The sultanate held onto the Makran coast throughout the period of British colonial rule, but eventually only Gwadar was left in the hands of the sultan. On the independence of Pakistan, Makran became a district within the province of Balochistan, minus an area of 800 km² around Gwadar. The enclave was finally transferred in 1958 to Pakistani control as part of the district of Makran. The entire region has been subdivided into new smaller districts over the years.