Tag Archives: Kaleem Omar

East meets West in Koh-i-Taftan on the Pakistan-Iran border today

by Kaleem Omar

KARACHI: “East is East and West is West, / And never the twain shall meet…” wrote Rudyard Kipling more than a hundred years ago. But what he said doesn’t always apply. In this context, consider, for example, an event that will take place at about 4 o’clock this afternoon in the small town of Koh-i-Taftan on the Pakistan-Iran border. Koh-i-Taftan (let’s call it Taftan for short) is not exactly the hub of the universe, and many Pakistanis may have never heard of it. Nor would they be any the wiser if one were to tell them that it is about 60 km northwest of Koh-i-Dalil. Yet it is here, in Taftan, that East and West will meet today, in a manner of speaking.

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Gawadur 2001: Concerning a journey through coastal Baluchistan

KARACHI: I have just got back from a 7-day, 3,000-kilometre trip through the coastal and southern region of Balochistan. There were 24 of us, in seven jeeps – all tried and tested members of a Karachi-based off-roaders club, people who scorn paved roads and are happiest when trundling along uncharted dirt tracks, preferably in low gear. Our journey took us from Karachi to Aghor Camp on the Hingol River, from there through the wonderfully named Buzi Pass to Ormara, then via Pasni to Gwadar, from there to Turbat, the headquarter of Makran division, and on via Hoshab to Panjgur, Awaran, Jhal Jhao, Bela and back to Karachi.

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