Wadh ( ur, ) is a City in the

Khuzdar District Khuzdar ( Balochi and Brahui: ; Urdu: ) is a district in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Its capital is the city of Khuzdar. Until its establishment as a district in 1974 it was part of Kalat District. In November 1992 part of the territo ...

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

, Pakistan. The population of the City was 480,950 according to the 2017 census. Most of the inhabitants of the sub-district belong to the

Mengal Mengal ( Balochi: مینگل ) are a Brahui speaking Baloch tribe in Balochistan, Pakistan. Clans There are two main clans of Mengal tribe, namely Shahizai Mengal and Zagar Mengal. Shahizai Mengal inhabits in central and southern parts of Baloc ...

tribe . The land of Wadh is agricultural and cultivated. The source of income of the people of Wadh is mainly farming and mining. The majority of the people in the area are

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

, with a small

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

minority.

Education

*The Govt. Boys High school and College Wadh have been established in Wadh Town by government of Balochistan. *

Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water & Marine Sciences (LUAWMS) is a public sector university located in Uthal, in the historic and magnificent district of Lasbela District, Lasbela, in Balochistan, Pakistan, Balochistan, province of Pakistan. ...

Wadh Campus,

Khuzdar Khuzdar ( Brahui/ bal, ; ur, , ), historically known as Qusdar ( ar, قصدار, quṣdār), is the capital city of Khuzdar District in the central part of Balochistan Province, Pakistan. Khuzdar is the 2nd-largest city of Balochistan province ...

* Wadh Student Library

Health

The Civil hospital Wadh Town provides health facilities to the people of Wadh Town and Tehsil Wadh.

Geography

Wadh is in the mountainous region between the Kalat plateau and the plains of

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

. The climate is semi-arid, although occasionally subject to flooding, with warm summers and mild winters. Agriculture is a major economic activity, followed by livestock farming. The area of Wadh is rich in mineral resources, with large deposits of

barite Baryte, barite or barytes ( or ) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate ( Ba S O4). Baryte is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of the element barium. The ''baryte group'' consists of baryte, celestine (strontium sulfate), ...

chromite Chromite is a crystalline mineral composed primarily of iron(II) oxide and chromium(III) oxide compounds. It can be represented by the chemical formula of FeCr2O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. The element magnesium can s ...

magnesite Magnesite is a mineral with the chemical formula (magnesium carbonate). Iron, manganese, cobalt, and nickel may occur as admixtures, but only in small amounts. Occurrence Magnesite occurs as veins in and an alteration product of ultramafic ro ...

manganite Manganite is a mineral composed of manganese oxide-hydroxide, MnO(OH), crystallizing in the monoclinic system (pseudo-orthorhombic). Crystals of manganite are prismatic and deeply striated parallel to their length; they are often grouped togethe ...

. The region where the town lies is also said to be rich in

oil and gas A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ...

, although the tense political situation has inhibited exploitation. Wadh was in

Jhalawan Jhalawan ( Brahui: جھالاوان) was an administrative division of the Khanate of Kalat, a princely state of Brahui that acceded to Pakistan in 1947. It was established in the 17th century and its boundary was fixed with Sindh in 1853. ...

state until 1 March 1974, when Wadh was re-defined as a sub-district within the

History

The mountainous area of Khuzdar and particularly Wadh has a turbulent history from earliest times, which continues today. The remains of many ancient sites and cave paintings of prehistoric period show the ancientness of Wadh and its surroundings. The

Tharia Cave Paintings The Tharia Cave paintings are prehistoric paintings which have been discovered in March 2015 at Tharia Cave, the most ancient rock shelter in Pabu Mountain, located near the Qili village, Chatoka Bhit , Pallimas valley, Tahseel Wadh, Khuzdar Dis ...

are situated in area of Wadh near

Pallimas Valley The Pallimas Valley Urdu (وادی پلیماس) Sindhi (وادي پلیماس) is a valley in Wadh Tesil, nearby Wadh town of Khuzdar District, Balochistan, a western province of Pakistan.The Kunj and other hill torrents flow from mountainous are ...

. The

people of Khuzdar speak Brahui, a

Dravidian language The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant i ...

, although most of their neighbors speak

Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped ...

. They have retained their distinctive identity while being periodically subjugated to the

Arab empire A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

, India,

Persia 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 ...

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 ...

. The

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

took control starting in 1839. In 1948 Balochistan became part of Pakistan.

N-25 National Highway

The

N-25 National Highway The N-25 or National Highway 25 ( ur, ) is an 850 km national highway in Pakistan which extends along from Karachi in Sindh province to Quetta in Balochistan province. It was previously known as the ''Regional Cooperation for Development ...

, which connects Balochistan with all the provinces and their cities and especially Pakistan-Iran-Turkey, passes through the town of Wadh and continues through the Mengal dominated area. The Highway is 813 km long and stretches from

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

- Lasbela-

-Wadh- Kalat- Mastung-

Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in Geography of Pakistan, south-west of the country close to the ...

Chaman Chaman ( Balochi, Pashto and ur, ) is a city and recently claimed as a new district of Balochistan named Chaman District as it was earlier a part of district Qila Abdullah District located on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It is the capital ...

and further onto Iran and Afghanistan. The highway also runs down to recent connection to

Gwadar Gwadar ( Balochi/ ur, ) is a port city with located on the southwestern coast of Balochistan, Pakistan. The city is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea opposite Oman. Gwadar is the 100th largest city of Pakistan, according to the 2017 ...

. The highway further connects to many towns in Balochistan and the highway to

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

and

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

in the

North-West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followin ...

. Over 150 commercial vans and coaches move between the port city of Karachi and Quetta. It is a key route to and through Balochistan. The highway was constructed under a treaty between Pakistan, Iran and Turkey and was first constructed during the regime of

Sardar Attaullah Mengal Ataullah Mengal (; 24 March 1929 – 2 September 2021) was a Pakistani politician and feudal figure. He was the head of the Mengal tribe until he nominated one of his grandsons, Sardar Asad Ullah Mengal, as his tribal successor. He was also the ...

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

of Balochistan. The town of Wadh is some 380 km south of

, the capital city of Balochistan.

References

{{Coord, 27, 21, N, 66, 22, E , region:PK_type:city , display=title Populated places in Khuzdar District