One of the busiest and most significant entry points between Afghanistan and Pakistan is the Chaman border crossing. At least 10,000 people cross here daily, as do trucks full of supplies, food, and fuel. The so-called Duran Line border drawn by the British in 1893 is not recognized by the Afghanistan government, but it is by Pakistan, and because both countries see the border differently, “bad actors” find it fairly easy to move across it. Security is tight.

A year after the border was drawn, the British established a military fort – the “Fort at Chaman” –  which was intended to secure the Duran Line and create a base of operations.  But in 1947, British India gained independence and the territory that included the Chaman region became part of the new nation of Pakistan. The British relinquished control of the fort at Chaman, and today, the fort at Chaman is under the control of the government of Pakistan.

Now that we’ve laid the groundwork for the fort’s history,we go back in time to when the fort was said to have been guarded by dogs.

Afghan Hounds, to be specific, and to be especially granular, a variant of the breed called the Bakhmull.

Lest breed enthusiasts get animated over this piece of history we came across, they should know that the story of Bakhmull Hounds guarding the fort should be regarded as breed folklore because so far, we’ve not found corroborating evidence to support the original source.  Still, the Afghan Hound’s traits of independence, intelligence, and stamina make the “urban legend” plausible, and similar traditions are said to exist, but the legend remains unverified in the formal records of breed organizations. We share it not only as an entertaining tale, but because it will segue into a brief discussion of the Bakhmull which does exist.

The Bakhmull is an Afghan Hound variant, that part is certain. As for its origins, here it gets a bit cloudy. The fanciful version is that a pair of Afghan Hounds were gifted to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev by the King of Afghanistan in the 1960s. These dogs were the basis of the Bakhmull line, a name taken from the Pashto word for “velvet,” a reference for the breed’s soft coat. These dogs were recognized as working/coursing dogs in Russia, hounds that adhered to the original hunting and physical breed traits found in Afghanistan. The more likely version is that the Bakhmull line in Russia came from dogs imported directly from Afghanistan by Soviet military men and officials returning from extended deployments in Afghanistan. These imported dogs, some from the Karizamir kennel, were used by Russian breeders to establish and standardize the Bakhmull as a working, aboriginal Afghan Hound in Russia (note that some of our information was gleaned from the writings of the late Colonel David Hancock (MBE) who passed away in 2021).

As far as we can tell, Bakhmulls were, and are, bred for function. As such, coat color should serve as camouflage to blend in with native landscape ( though there is always a darker “saddle” along the back);  structurally, the dogs are described as being more robust, their instincts to work more intense. It was these hounds that were described by Barbara Skilton as being the dogs that guarded the Chaman fort’s perimeter throughout the night, acting without human supervision or even formal training. They were said to be so intelligent and self-sufficient that they worked independently, effectively scaring off intruders and warning soldiers of threats.

As for the Bakhmull today, our understanding is that attempts to preserve and revive the Bakhmull have centered in Russia since the 1980s. A breed standard was formally adopted in 1997 by the Russian Federation of Hunting Dogs’ Owners, an entity that goes back to the Imperial Society for Breeding of Game Animals and Proper Hunting which organized Russia’s first dog shows in the 19th century and set standards for hunting dog breeding and field trials. It is not affiliated with the FCI (Fédération Cynologique Internationale, but some sources write that it is the primary authority for working and hunting dog lines in Russia. We defer to Russian dog fanciers on this score and welcome input.

We conclude by pointing out that our purpose in writing about the Bakhmull is to share a snippet of breed information we came across by accident – and as an excuse to use the striking photo found though a subscription on Unsplash+ Getty Images, no photographer’s name seen listed.