The once mighty Fort now gives a desolate account of our neglect of precious heritage
Thanks to one of my PhD students doing research on Cholistan forts, we made several trips to the great desert and visited dozens of forts during the course of their research. On one such trip, we ended up visiting Rahim Yar Khan, and even though the Harrand fort was not a part of our study, we decided to visit it as well.
It was almost dark when we left Rahim Yar Khan for Rojhan. At nearly midnight, we crossed the River Indus by boat bridge. We were told when we started this journey that the passage to Rojhan and Rajanpur was not safe, particularly at night. We were thus provided armed guards who piloted us in their jeep. Around midnight we passed by the town of Rojhan and started our journey on the National Highway towards Rajanpur. A few kilometers before Rajanpur our guards said goodbye to us and about half an hour after midnight we were in Rajanpur. Historias maintain that the word ‘Rojhan’ has its origins in the ancient Babylonian language, meaning ‘city of tents’. Present-day Rojhan is situated near Indus River bordering Dera Bugti, Balochistan and Kashmore, Sindh.