The Unai Pass or Onai Pass is a mountain pass on the western side of the Paghman Mountains in

Jalrez District Jalrez (Pashto/ prs, جلرېز) is a district in the west of Maidan Shar, Maidan Wardak Province, Afghanistan. The main town lies at Jalrez, which is southwest of the centre of Kabul via the main Kabul-Behsud Highway. The district is a major ...

Maidan Wardak Province Maidan Wardak (Pashto: ; Dari: ), also called Wardag or Wardak, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the central region of Afghanistan. It is divided into eight districts and has a population of approximately 500,00 The capital ...

, Afghanistan. It is of strategical importance due to its geographical location to the southwest of

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

. The Sarchashma River flows through the pass, which is the upstream part of the Kabul River. The Maidan River, a tributary of the Kabul/Sarchashma rises at the pass at an altitude of about . Due to its importance, the pass has a long history of being involved in conflict in Afghanistan. In 1929, Muhammad Mir Fath (1901-1964) was one of three Hazara commanders who defeated the forces of

Habibullah Kalakani Habibullah also spelled Habib Ullah, Habibollah, Habeeb-Allah etc. ( ar, حَبِيْبَُ ٱلله), is a male Muslim given name meaning in ''Beloved of God'', stemming from the male form of the name Habib. It may refer to: People *Raja Sir C ...

at the pass between March and September of that year. The ''

mujahedin ''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 ...

'' took the Unai Pass in the spring of 1979 during the war against the Soviet-backed Afghan communist regime, and Jalrez district was one of the earliest districts to be taken. In 1983, the Hazara Al-Nasr group attacked the

Harakat Islami Islamic Movement of Afghanistan ( fa, حرکت اسلامی افغانستان, ''Harakat-e Islami-yi Afghanistan'') is a political party and former faction of the Afghan Northern Alliance (United Front) in Afghanistan. The movement is register ...

in Siasang and the area near the pass. In 2008, the Ministry of Public Works began the rehabilitation of 136 kilometres of the Kabul highway, aided by 36 million euros funding from the Italian government. The first phase of the project, Lot No 1, began in 2008 with the rehabilitation of a 54 kilometre stretch of earth road starting in Maidan Shar and working towards the Unai Pass.

References

{{Wardak Province Jalrez District Mountain passes of Afghanistan Hazarajat