Omarali is on point.

If you follow all the threads, however, Afghanistan has been a relatively well-flipped pawn since the dawn of civilization.

Reading history from the British Durand Line days is sure to obscure the functional human and economic geography at play.

Gwandar was NOT afghanistan, nor was it Pakistan. It was it's own functional region from Kwandar to Khandahar.

I recently read a supposedly authoritative piece wherein the author was waxing poetic on the great accomplishments of Afghanistan, with a little disclaimer that it was "in the area now known as Afghanistan." Actually, it was the area then known as Gwandar."

The below reference is a little hard to read (English as second language) but it does a good job of opening the door of possible alternative histories of India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and IRAN, and the cultures and civilizations which sprang up along the sea coast and extended inward by either river valleys or terrain.

http://www.ranajitpal.com/dream.html

India itself was, and in part, remains a hodgepodge of "Empires" which they are still internally trying to sort out into functional states.

Steve