Mesozoic • Jurassic-Cretaceous formation GSP memoir

Deshan Banda Limestone

Middle Jurassic to Cretaceous

Kohistan-Ladakh Magmatic Arc · Dir-Drosh

Cited in 3 sources Last reviewed Jul 31, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Mesozoic · Jurassic-CretaceousMiddle Jurassic to Cretaceous
Named by: Not recorded
Type locality: Deshan Banda locality in upper Swat
Thickness: Kalam Group about 800 m (Karandoki Slate + Deshan Banda Limestone + Shon Quartzite)
Lithology: Grey limestone of the Kalam Group (Dir-Drosh area), overlying the Karandoki Slate and overlain by the Shon Quartzite; the Kalam Group is about 800 m thick and assigned a Middle Jurassic-Cretaceous age (Tahirkheli 1980).
Synonyms: Not recorded

A limestone of the Kohistan greenstone belt, within the arc's Cretaceous metasedimentary sequence.

The Deshan Banda Limestone (Besham Banda limestone), named after the Deshan Banda locality in upper Swat by Tahirkheli (1979), consists of 35 m of crystalline and fossiliferous limestone. It forms part of the Kalam group (total thickness more than 800 m), which also includes the Karandoki slates (named after the Karandoki stream 2 km south of Kalam; 120 m of grey, green and maroon slates with layers of para-amphibole) and the Shou quartzites (named after the Shou stream near Kalam town; 600 m of quartzites). The Kalam group units are locally intruded by the 75-78 Ma Deshai diorites (Jan and Mian 1971).

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Kohistan Arc column

IgneousLimestoneMetamorphicConformableContact not recorded

Band colour = period; texture = dominant rock type. Lines between bands mark the contact type; dotted = no contact recorded in the sources (not a claim of conformity). True scale makes height ∝ recorded thickness; hatched = thickness not recorded. Ages approximate, for ordering.

This unit (highlighted) within its province column; faded ends continue above and below. Line style marks the contact type.

Distribution & setting

Kohistan Arc

Basin: Kohistan-Ladakh Magmatic Arc
Region: Dir-Drosh
Depositional environment: marine
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

Not recorded. Compare this unit against other basins on the correlation panel →

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

A limestone unit of the Kohistan greenstone/metasedimentary belt, associated with the Kalam Group metasediments intruded by Cretaceous (Deshai) diorites.

Research notes (4)

Field-by-field findings drawn from the cited literature. Every statement is traced to a registered source — follow a citation for the full reference.

Lithology (3)

Data-quality flag (reviewer, 2026-07-30): this record is internally inconsistent — the name ("Besham Banda Limestone", Cretaceous, Kohistan province) does not match its lithology field, which describes the "Karandoki slates ... 2 km south of Kalam (Tahirkheli 1979)". Kazmi & Jan (1997) describe the Besham Group as a PRECAMBRIAN basement (quartzo-feldspathic gneisses, ~1850-2000 Ma amphibolites) at the core of the Besham antiform, and note that "Banda" elsewhere denotes unrelated units (Misri Banda Quartzite, Deshan Banda Limestone, Baraul Banda Slate) — there is no formal "Besham Banda Limestone". Likely a migration/conflation error; needs reviewer clarification (is this the Karandoki Slates, the Precambrian Besham Group, or a Cretaceous Kohistan limestone?). Downgraded to under-review.

Kazmi, A.H. & Jan, M.Q. (1997)
Audit diagnosis (2026-07-30): Kazmi & Jan (1997) identify the real constituents as two units of the Kalam Group (Dir-Drosh area) — the Karandoki Slate (basal) overlain by the Deshan Banda Limestone (then Shon Quartzite; Kalam Group ~800 m, Middle Jurassic-Cretaceous, Tahirkheli 1980). This record conflates the Karandoki Slate + Deshan Banda Limestone and mislabels them "Besham" (a separate Precambrian nappe near the Indus Syntaxis). Recommend splitting/renaming to the Kalam Group units and removing the "Besham" association.

Kazmi, A.H. & Jan, M.Q. (1997)
Corrected (reviewer audit, 2026-07-30): this record was mislabelled "Besham Banda Limestone" and carried the underlying Karandoki Slate lithology. Per Kazmi & Jan (1997) it is the Deshan Banda Limestone of the Kalam Group (Dir-Drosh area, Kohistan), a Middle Jurassic-Cretaceous limestone between the basal Karandoki Slate and the overlying Shon Quartzite. It is NOT related to the Precambrian Besham nappe. The Karandoki Slate remains to be added as a separate underlying unit.

Kazmi, A.H. & Jan, M.Q. (1997)

Geological significance (1)

Kazmi & Abbasi (2008) CORROBORATES the earlier rename to 'Deshan Banda Limestone': the book has a 'Deshan Banda limestone' (upper Swat) — ~35 m of light grey crystalline fossiliferous limestone that underlies the Shon/Shou Quartzites and overlies the Karandoki Slates within the Kalam Group (Matsushita 1965; Middle Jurassic–Cretaceous). There is no 'Besham Banda' unit in the Kalam Group (the previous label conflated it with the unrelated Besham Indus-gorge Proterozoic locality). Kalam Group order (top→base): Shon Quartzites → Deshan Banda Limestone → Karandoki Slates.

Kazmi, A.H. & Abbasi, I.A. (2008)

Sources (5)

Tahirkheli, R. A. K. (1979). Kalam Group (Cretaceous), upper Swat.
Malkani, M. S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Pakistan, Vol. 24.
Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
Kazmi, A.H. & Jan, M.Q. (1997). Geology and Tectonics of Pakistan. Graphic Publishers, Karachi.
Kazmi, A.H. & Abbasi, I.A. (2008). Stratigraphy and Historical Geology of Pakistan. Department & National Centre of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar, Peshawar. 524 pp. ISBN 978-969-9119.

Reviewer confidence: high

Every fact on this page is source-cited. This entry is part of the peer-archived Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset (doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991, CC‑BY‑4.0).

Lexicon status: Appears in a single-author Geological Survey of Pakistan memoir (Malkani & Mahmood 2017), not cross-confirmed against the Shah lexicon. The Stratigraphic Committee of Pakistan is largely inactive, so documented provenance — not formal ratification — is the available signal.

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Cite this unit

APA

Qudsi, L. (2026). Deshan Banda Limestone. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_beshambandalimestone,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Deshan Banda Limestone} --- Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.21363991},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991}
}

Archived dataset: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991 (CC‑BY‑4.0) · Direct link to this entry: https://stratigraphy.pk/formation/besham-banda-limestone (accessed October 29, 2026).