Baloristan

Baloristan (Gilgit-Chitral) is the name of a region of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. It borders the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, Afghanistan and China to the north and Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir to the east, leading to the frozen wastes of the Siachen glacier.

The central administrative unit of Baloristan, Gilgit Agency.

In history books, the area is also known as Baloristan or Dardistan. Prof Ahmed Hasan Dani, in his book, History of Northern Areas of Pakistan (1994) writes that the area was collectively called Baloristan by Chinese and other Central Asian historians.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in a report on the status of the area gives a glimpse of the sentiments of the people who have been ruled by Pakistani government in most of the areas after the princely states disintegrated in 1974. "For over 50 years, the Northern Areas in Pakistani-administered Kashmir have been administered by Pakistan although they are not legally part of it. This curious position arises from what the Pakistani government calls its unresolved dispute with India over the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir."

Baloristan is as strategically important to Pakistan as it was to the British in the days of the British Empire. The issue of its status appears even more anomalous because, at the time of independence, the princes whose separate principalities comprised the area had indicated their willingness to join Pakistan. Their accession, which has never been accepted, has been a great disappointment to the majority of the approximately 0.7 million inhabitants, who are 100% Muslims (Shia, Sunni and Ismailis).

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