Attock Khurd (Urdu: اٹک خورد; "Little Attock") is a small town located beside the Indus River in the Attock District of Punjab Province in Pakistan. Khurd and Kalan are Persian words, themselves derived from Sanskrit (Kshudra means "small" in Sanskrit: "ksh" becomes "kha" in Prakrit) words, which means small and big respectively. When two villages have the same name, they are distinguished as Kalan and Khurd with the villages' names. Historically and strategically, Attock Khurd is considered the gateway to Central Asia, since it is near the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border.