Nika District ( ps, نکه ولسوالۍ, fa, ولسوالی نکه), also known as Naka, is one of the most remote districts in

Paktika Province Paktika (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000, mostly ethnic Pashtuns. The town of Sharana ...

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 ...

. It lies in a bowl-shaped valley and is only accessible by a few rocky river beds and a single dirt road, the latter of which is not passable in winter. The valley's economy is rudimentary and relies on wood cutting and subsistence farming. The district is within the heartland of the Zadran 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 re ...

. The population in 2019 was estimated at 16,747. It was, until the US invasion 2001, a bastion for 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 ...

, with mid-level and a few senior Taliban commanders spending time there, including

Jalaluddin Haqqani Jalaluddin Haqqani ( ps, جلال الدين حقاني, Jalāl al-Dīn Ḥaqqānī) (1939 – 3 September 2018) was an Afghan insurgent commander who founded the Haqqani network, an insurgent group fighting in guerilla warfare against US-led ...

, who has since taken up a prominent role in Al Queda and is rumored to have been one of

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

's senior advisors.

References

Districts of Paktika Province {{Paktika-geo-stub