Diamer District

The district Diamir ( 10,936 km ²) is one of the seven Pakistani districts of Gilgit -Baltistan Autonomous Region, the former Northern Areas. He is a high mountain in the Karakoram and western Himalayas. This district can be reached on the Karakorum Highway. The capital is Chilas.

Location

The district Diamir lies to the east of the district Astore, which is part of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the southwest it is reached by the Babusar Pass, in the south it is located at the Nilam district of Azad Kashmir, the district Ghizer lies to the north and northwest, and the Gilgit district borders on the north and northeast.

Before the Karakoram Highway existed, the district was accessible only via Gilgit and south on a dirt road from Balakot and the Babusar Pass. It was through Kaghan, Naran, Besal, and Gittidas further by Babusar to Chilas. The road from Besal to Babusar Pass is passable only with four-wheel vehicles. A new road project of Thelichi Chilas to Skardu via Deosai and will shorten the route between Astore and Skardu.

The Nanga Parbat is also Diamar, called the " King of the Mountain "; the second highest mountain of Pakistan and the ninth highest in the world, is located in the Diamir District.

Diamir - Bhasha Dam

On 17 March 2006 put Pervez Musharraf in Bhasha the foundation stone for the project of the 270 meter high Diamir - Basha Dam, which is to serve the electricity and water supply and the Indus River dams. This dam is controversial, since it will lead to the evacuation of 32 villages and 30,000 people. The dam would be 12,779 km ² ( 31 580 acres) of barren and 647 km ² (1600 acres) flood arable land. Furthermore, the Government of Pakistan accused that the dam lies not in her, but in the political decision region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Religion and language

The districts Chilas and Darel / Tangier of the Diamir District are dominated to 100 % percent of the Sunni religious. The Shina language is also spoken in Diamir, but the Balti dialect, a dialect of the language of the Ladakhi and Tibetan language group is spoken here and everywhere in Baltistan.

Others

The Muttath and tattoo valley in Diamir district, about 60 km from Gilgit are situated, were affected at the end of 2002 by a strong earthquake that caused severe damage. From these valleys, where 14 villages are situated and live about 3100 residents had to be evacuated in about half a tent camp after Gonar Farm, which is 28 kilometers away from Chilas. On October 8, 2005, there came another severe earthquake in this area.