Urgun District

Urgun اورګون
District
Urgun district within the province of Paktika.
Urgun Location in Afghanistan
Coordinates: 32°54′2.160″N 69°09′24.840″E / 32.90060000°N 69.15690000°E / 32.90060000; 69.15690000
Country	Afghanistan
Province	Paktika
Capital	Urgun
Time zone	UTC+4:30

Urgun (Pashto: اورګون ولسوالۍ, Persian: ولسوالی اورگون) is a district of the remote Paktika Province in Afghanistan.

Administrative seat

The administrative seat of this district is the like-named town of Urgun, also known as Loy Urgun, meaning "Greater Urgun".

History

Urgun town used to be the provincial capital until it was replaced by Sharana in the 1970s due to its proximity to the main highway, connecting it to Kabul, Ghazni, and Kandahar.

The Siege of Urgun took place between 1983 and 1984.

On October 17, 2025, in the village of Khandaro, the Pakistan Air Force killed 17 Afghan civilians, including three cricket players, and injured 16 more Afghans.^[1][2]

Demographics

The largest tribe in Urgun are the Tajik formuli,^[3] Other tribes include the Kharoti, Sulaimankhel, and Wazir.^[4] There are also Uzbeks and Sayed People in smaller numbers.

Like many place names in Afghanistan, Urgun can be spelled a number of different ways. "Urgon", "Orgun" and "Orgon", however, remain the most popular alternative spellings on maps and official documents.

References

1. "Pakistan's airstrike kills 17 civilians in E. Afghanistan". Xinhuanet. October 18, 2025. Retrieved October 18, 2025.
2. "Afghanistan's Defence Minister arrives in Doha for negotiations with Pakistan". Lokmat Times. October 18, 2025. Retrieved October 18, 2025 – via Indo-Asian News Service.
3. Paktika Province Tribal Map (Page 11). Naval Postgraduate School.
4. Paktika Personalities: An Examination of the Tribes and the Significant People of a Traditional Pashtun Province – Timothy S. Timmons and Rashid Hassanpoor (2007)