Zabul Province

Zabul زابل
Province
An aircraft flies past the Spin Ghar mountains on approach for a routine supply drop in Shah Joy district
Map of Afghanistan with Zabul highlighted
Coordinates: 32°06′N 67°06′E / 32.1°N 67.1°E / 32.1; 67.1Coordinates: 32°06′N 67°06′E / 32.1°N 67.1°E / 32.1; 67.1
Country	Afghanistan
Capital	Qalat
Government
• Governor	Bismillah Afghanmal
Area
• Total	17,343 km2 (6,696 sq mi)
Population (2015)
• Total	304,126
• Density	18/km2 (45/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+4:30
ISO 3166 code	AF-ZAB
Main languages	Pashto

Zabul (Persian and Pashto: زابل‎) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the south of the country. It has a mostly rural population of about 289,300. Zabul became an independent province from neighbouring Kandahar in 1963. Historically, it was part of the Zabulistan region. Qalat serves as the capital of the province.

Zabul borders Oruzgan in the north, Kandahar in the west and in the south, Ghazni and Paktika in the east. It borders Pakistan in the east where it lays adjacent to Balochistan's Zhob district to which it corresponds by being an extension of.

The province covers an area of 17293 km2. Two-fifths of the province is mountainous or semi mountainous terrain (41%) while more than one quarter of the area is made up of flat land (28%).

The primary ecoregion of the province is the central Afghan mountains xeric woodlands. Common vegetation is listed as dry shrub-land and pistachio. The high mountains of the northern portion of the province are in the Ghor-Hazarajat alpine meadow ecoregion, which is characterized by meadows, willows, and sea buckthorn.

The current governor of the province is Mohammad Ashraf Naseri. His preceder was Delbar Jan Arman. The city of Qalat is the capital of the province. All law enforcement activities throughout the province are controlled by the Afghan National Police (ANP). Zabul's border with neighboring Balochistan province of Pakistan is monitored the Afghan Border Police (ABP). The border area in this province is used by Taliban insurgents entering from Pakistan. Plans are underway to construct new border stations in the near future. The provincial police chief represents the Ministry of the Interior in Kabul. The ANP is backed by other Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), including the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and NATO-led forces.