Grishk ( ps, ګرِشک, translit=Grishk; fa, گِرِشک, translit=Gereshk), also spelled Gereshk, is a town in
Grishk District
Grishk District ( ps, ګرشک ولسوالۍ) (population 114,200), also called Nahri Saraj District (), is a district in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. Its principal municipality is Grishk (population 48,546). Grishk Dam is located i ...
of
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 ...
, geographically located along 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 ...
in
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 ...
, some northwest of
Kandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...
, at altitude. Upstream lies the
Kajaki Dam
The Kajaki Dam is one of the two major hydroelectric power dams of Helmand Province, Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. The dam is located on the Helmand River 100 miles (161 km) north-west of Kandahar and is operated by the Helmand an ...
which diverts water to the
Boghra Irrigation Canal
Boghra Irrigation Canal or Nahr-e Bughra is a canal some 155 kilometres long in central Afghanistan in Helmand Province, serving to divert water from the Helmand River and the Arghandab for farmland. The Afghan government received US funding of $2 ...
, an essential infrastructure for the region's crops. Grishk Dam is also nearby. Grishk was originally built around a fort on the east bank of the river but was later rebuilt on the west. The fort was twice captured by the British: first in the
First Anglo-Afghan War
The First Anglo-Afghan War ( fa, جنگ اول افغان و انگلیس) was fought between the British Empire and the Emirate of Afghanistan, Emirate of Kabul from 1838 to 1842. The British initially successfully invaded the country taking si ...
and again in 1879. In both cases the fort was later abandoned. Grishk has a population of about 48,546 and has a hospital and a school of engineering which was built back in 1957.
Grishk is located on the important transport route known as Highway 1, which was built during the time of the
Soviet–Afghan War
The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen (alongside smaller groups of anti-Soviet ...
. This route links
Farah Province
Farah (Dari: , ''Farā'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southwestern part of the country next to Iran. It is a spacious and sparsely populated province, divided into eleven districts and contains hundreds of villages ...
in the west and to
Kandahar Province
Kandahār ( ps, ; Kandahār, prs, ; ''Qandahār'') is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southern part of the country, sharing a border with Pakistan, to the south. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzgan ...
in the east. As part of
Operation Moshtarak
Operation Moshtarak (Dari for ''Together'' or ''Joint''), also known as the Battle of Marjah, was an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) pacification offensive in the town of Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. It involved a comb ...
the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and Afghan workers are constructing
Route Trident
Route Trident (known locally as the New or Big Road) was built by the British Army's Royal Engineers in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The construction of the road was codenamed Operation Lar Jarowel by the Ministry of Defence. Route Trident (na ...
, a road that will eventually connect Grishk with the provincial capital of
Lashkar Gah
Lashkargāh ( ps, لښکرګاه; fa, لشکرگاه), historically called Bost or Boost (), is a city in southwestern Afghanistan and the capital of Helmand Province. It is located in Lashkargah District, where the Arghandab River merges into ...
. Grishk is also the southern terminus of Route 611. The area is irrigated by the
hot desert climate
The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''BWh''), characterised by little precipitation and high variation between summer and winter temperatures. The average temperature in Grishk is 19.6 °C, while the annual precipitation averages 117 mm. Summers start in mid-May, last until late-September, and are extremely dry. July is the hottest month of the year with an average temperature of 32.2 °C. The coldest month January has an average temperature of 7.0 °C.
Ethnography
The population of Grishk is primarily made up of Pashtuns, along with large minorities of Hazaras and Shia Tajiks, being one of the only regions of Helmand province with a significant Shia minority. Grishk was under control of
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''. Wh ...
tribe during the time of first
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 ...
government, and Mullah Mir Hamza an ethnic Pashtun from Noorzai tribe was the District governor of Grishk, while Mullah Mahmmad Azam an ethnic Pashtun from Noorzai tribe was the commander of Taliban forces in Grishk.
Operation Enduring Freedom
In November, 2003, Afghan Civilian Abdul Wahed died in Grishk at the special forces base, after being exposed to torture by the Afghan army. NYTimes: US Fails to Investigate Abuses In April 2008 the 2nd Battalion 7th Marines, Echo Co, which was sent there to help support train the Afghan Police, worked with the Danish and British military.
On December 4, 2008, two Danish soldiers were killed near Grishk.
In June 2017, the son of Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, Hebatullah Akhundzadeh, named Hafiz Abdul Rahman, committed a suicide attack against Afghan forces based in the city.
The city, along with other parts of Helmand province and the whole of Afghanistan, fell to Taliban forces as a result of the
2021 Taliban offensive
A military offensive by the Taliban insurgent group and other allied militants led to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan based in Kabul and marked the end of the nearly 20-year-old War in Afghanistan, that had begun following the ...
.
See also
*
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 ...