Since the arrival of the British in Balochistan in 1839, Quetta, the provincial capital, used to be known as ‘Little London’ due to its scenic beauty and its London-like buildings. Among other things, it was clean and there were wide roads.
The British had designed it for the population of 35,000 people who were living there after the devastating 1935 earthquake. The natural disaster completely destroyed the whole city.
Since then, most importantly, the infrastructure including wide roads and streets were maintained and clean. Besides the British, there were foreigners visiting the bowl-shaped Quetta valley as well as there used to be bars. One of the famous bars was a French bar, run by Frenchwomen.
After the refusal of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire to give a passage to Afghanistan, the British thought of using Balochistan to gain access to Afghanistan. Reportedly, before the arrival of the British, Quetta used to be a small village. When they came to the valley, they developed it as a garrison town due to its vicinity to Afghanistan.
Photo curtesy: Zaheer Chaudhry
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