Grishk District ( ps, ګرشک ولسوالۍ) (population 114,200), also called Nahri Saraj District (), is a district in

Helmand Province Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan Afghanistan is divided into 34 provinces (, '' wilåyat''). The provinces of Afghanistan are the primar ...

in southern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. Its principal municipality is

Grishk Grishk ( ps, ګرِشک, translit=Grishk; fa, گِرِشک, translit=Gereshk), also spelled Gereshk, is a town in Grishk District of Helmand province, geographically located along the Helmand River in Afghanistan, some northwest of Kandahar, a ...

(population 48,546).

Grishk Dam The Grishk Dam is a dam and power plant on the Helmand River, located near Grishk in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. A 2003 technical journal noted that the Grishk power plant was commissioned on an irrigation canal in 1945, and had two damaged and ...

is located in the district.

History

On 3 May 2020, seven

Afghan security forces The Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), also known as the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), were the military and internal security forces of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Structure The Afghan National Security For ...

were killed and at least 12 others wounded in a suicide

truck bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...

attack on a military and intelligence base in Grishk District. A Mazda mini truck was exploded in front of the gate by the suicide attacker, partially damaging the base. The

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

claimed responsibility for the attack.

Demography

The ethnic composition is predominantly

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

,MRRD
District Profile and the main tribe is

Noorzai Nurzai also spelled as ''Noorzai'' ( ps, نورزئی) (meaning ''son of the light'') is the name of a Pashtun tribe, part of the Panjpai section of Durrani Tareen Pashtuns. The word "''nūr''" derives from the Arabic word for ''the light''. Whi ...

Location

Gerishk District sits at the intersection of Highway 1 (the 'Afghan ring-road', based on the old

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

and refurbished in the 1960s with US investment) and the

Helmand River The Helmand River (also spelled Helmend, or Helmund, Hirmand; Pashto/Persian: ; Greek: ' (''Etýmandros''); Latin: ') is the longest river in Afghanistan and the primary watershed for the endorheic Sistan Basin. It emerges in the Sanglakh ...

. A major stopping-point on the trade routes from

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, Grishk enjoys the prospect of returning to its historical prosperity, although this is under threat of Taliban resurgence in the region. Route 611 passes through Gerishk District.

Income

The main source of income is agriculture. The soil is rich and the irrigation systems are in relatively good condition. The irrigation is from the Helamand River, karezes and tube-wells.

Hospitals and Schools

There is a hospital with both male and female doctors. There are 20 schools in the district, attended by 80% of the children.

Operation Enduring Freedom

Bismullah appointed to be the transportation director for Ghereskh by the

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

administration was sent to

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

, where he was held in

extrajudicial detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...

for seven years. On January 17, 2009, the US Government acknowledged that he had never been an "enemy combatant".

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20090206161913/http://aims.org.af/maps/district/hilmand/nahri_sarraj.pdf District Map * https://web.archive.org/web/20061211123952/http://jemb.org/eng/electoral_system/reg.centers.pdf Actual census data since 2005 year Districts of Helmand Province {{Helmand-geo-stub