Haska Meyna ( ps, هسکه مېنه), also called Deh Bala, is a town in
Haska Meyna District
Haska Meyna ( ps, هسکه مېنه), also called Deh Bala District, is a district in the south of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, bordering on Pakistan. Its population, which is 100% Pashtuns
Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also ...
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 ...
, bordering on
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
. The town is located within the heartland of the Shinwari tribe of
Pashtuns
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 r ...
.
Deh Bala is home to the Shinwari tribe, one of the largest Pashtun tribes. It was a stronghold of the
Mujaheddin
''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term t ...
during the
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
Qari Barakatullah Saleem was born in the district. Deh Bala (ده بالا) is one of the villages of Haska Meyna district. Qari Barakatullah Saleem was an Afghan Quran reciter and is regarded as one of the best reciters of the Quran. He had won multiple Qira'at competitions.
Economy
Agriculture is the main source of income. Crops include wheat, corn, sugar cane and rice. At times,
opium poppies
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
have been an important crop. Deh Bala's residents do not have a modern water supply system for their crops. They traditionally drain water from the mountain (
), which flows along the south of the district, using water tap and shallow wells. Floods often destroy valuable fields. In the hill country, water must often be carried long distances by pack animal. Most villagers do not have access to potable water. Collecting and selling firewood, and manual labor, are other income-generating activities.
Haska Meyna wedding party airstrike
The Haska Meyna wedding party airstrike was an attack by United States military forces on 6 July 2008, in which 47 Afghans were killed. The group was escorting a bride to a wedding ceremony in the groom's village in Haska Meyna District of Nang ...