Logar (province)

Logar (لوگر, 'greater mountain'; لوې غر) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan located in the eastern section of the country. It is divided into 7 districts and contains hundreds of villages. Puli Alam is the capital of the province. As of 2021, Logar has a population of approximately 442,037 people, most of whom are ethnic Pashtuns and Tajiks. The Logar River enters the province through the west and leaves to the north. A 2,600-year-old Zoroastrian fire temple was found at Mes Aynak (about 25 miles or 40 kilometers southeast of Kabul). Several Buddhist stupas and more than 1,000 statues were also found. Smelting workshops, miners’ quarters (even then the site's copper was well known), a mint, two small forts, a citadel, and a stockpile of Kushan, Sassanian and Indo-Parthian coins were also found at the site. During the Soviet–Afghan War, Logar was known among some Afghans as the Bab al-Jihad (Gates of Jihad) because it became a fierce theatre of war between US-backed/trained mujahideen groups and the Soviet-backed Afghan government troops. The Ahmadzai Pashtuns is dominant in this region. Haji Shuja, Haji Zareen and Haji Bahadur were the prominent traders and chieftains in the region before the soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It was one of the main supply routes of mujahideen rebels coming from Pakistan. Like other parts of the country, Logar has also seen heavy fighting since the Soviets started a crackdown against the elders of the Ahmadzai tribe during the 1980s. Swedish journalist Borge Almqvist, who visited the province in 1982, wrote that: "Everywhere in the Logar province the most common sight except for ruins are graves". Soviet operations included using bombing, the use of flammable liquids to burn alive people in hiding, poisoning of drinking water, and destruction of crops and farmland. One writer who witnessed the events argues that the Soviet actions in Logar amounted to genocide. By 1995, the province had fallen to the Taliban government.