The Chitral River, also known in Afghanistan as the Kunar River, is a 480 kilometres (300 mi) long river in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. It originates from the Chiantar glacier, located at the border of Gilgit Baltistan and Chitral which falls within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. At Arandu it enters into Afghanistan, where it is named as the Kunar River. It later merges with Kabul river in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. The river system is fed by melting glaciers and snow of the Hindu Kush mountains. The Chitral River serves as a major a tributary of the Kabul river, which is in turn a tributary of the Indus River.
Origin and course of flow
The river rises in the far north glaciated Hindu Kush mountains of Chitral, Pakistan, where it is referred to as Chitral river. Around 60% to 70% of annual discharge of Kunar river originates from Chitral. Downstream as far as the town of Mastuj, it is called as the Mastuj river, till its confluence with the Lotkoh river. Kunar then turns southwards into the upper Kunar Valley of Afghanistan.
At the confluence in Asadabad, it meets with Pech River and finally empties into the Kabul River just to the east of the city of Jalalabad in Afghanistan. The combined rivers then flow eastwards into Pakistan again, and joins the Indus River at the city of Attock.
^The Afghan War, 1838-1842: From the Journal and Correspondence of the Late Major-General Augustus Abbott, editor Charles Rathbone Low, publisher R. Bentley & Son, 1879, Google Books
