Chronology of Catholic Dioceses:Notes on the Apostolic Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir - 1887

The district was, prior to 1887, part of the Capuchin Diocese of Lahore. In that year it was confided to the Fathers of the English Foreign Missions (Mill Hill). The Prefecture included some of the most important British military stations of Northern India, Peshawar at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, Nowshera and Rawalpindi, the latter place being the army headquarters of lieutenant-general commanding the Northern Army in India. Rawalpindi was also the residence of the Prefect Apostolic.

Kafiristan was at that time the name for an area on the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush, straddling the present border between Afghanistan and India. The larger part of it was in today's Afghanistan. After that part was conquered by the Emir of Kabul, the Kafirs, who practiced animism, were forcibly converted to Islam in 1895-96, or killed. The area was renamed Nuristan, whereas the Pakistani part of the area, centred on Chitral, is still often called Kafiristan.

-CT