History and Biodata |
Qalat District Uruzgan Province Chief:
Abdul Khaliq Ayubi (20140330)
Background:
The capital of Uruzgan, Qalat, was formerly known as Qalat-i-Ghilzai (“Fort of the Ghilzai”), after the predominant local tribal group. The Ghilzai are the largest Pashtun tribal confederation, comprising as much as 24 percent of the Afghan population. But since the eighteenth century, when the rival Durranis—about 16 percent of the population—took Kandahar, the Afghan kingship, and with it the juiciest land, the Ghilzai have lived to large degree in sullen, semi-rebellious rural poverty. Much of the Taliban leadership comes from the Ghilzai. |