Bajaur District

Bajaur District (باجوړ ولسوالۍ, ), formerly Bajaur Agency, is a district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Prior to 2018, Bajaur Agency was the northernmost component of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a semi-autonomous region along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border. In May 2018, FATA was merged into the larger Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPK) in an attempt to bring stability to the region, redesignating Bajaur Agency to Bajaur District.

The district lies on Pakistan's western border, sharing a 52 km border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province, and lies 35 mi (56 km) north of the Torkham border crossing linking Jalalabad and Peshawar. 498 square kilometer miles in size, Bajaur occupies a small mountain basin and is into seven tehsil (subdistricts) with its district headquarters in the town of Khar, in the district's center. According to the 2017 Pakistani census, Bajaur District has a population of 1,090,987.

Geography
Before the 2018 incorporation of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas' (FATA) tribal agencies into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPK), Bajaur Agency was both the northernmost and smallest of the seven tribal agencies, bordering the slightly larger Kurram Agency to its south.

Bajaur is about 45 mi long and 20 mi wide. It lies at a high elevation to the east of the Kunar Valley of Afghanistan from which it is separated by a continuous line of rugged frontier hills. The old road from Afghanistan's Kabul to Pakistan went through Bajaur before a new pass, Khyber Pass, was constructed.

To the south of Bajaur is the district of Mohmand. To the east, beyond the Panjkora River, are the hills of Swat District. On its east side, there is the district of Malakand, while on its northeast is an intervening watershed between Bajaur and Dir.

Nawagai is the chief town of Bajaur; the Khan of Nawagai was previously under the British protection for the purpose of safeguarding of the Chitral road.

An interesting feature in the topography is a mountain spur from the Kunar range.

The drainage of Bajaur flows eastwards, starting from the eastern slopes of the dividing ridge, which overlooks the Kunar and terminating in the Panjkora river, so that the district lies on a slope tilting gradually downwards from the Kunar ridge to the Panjkora.

Jandol, one of the northern valleys of Bajaur, has ceased to be of political importance since the 19th century, when a previous chief, Umra Khan, failed to appropriate himself Bajaur, Dir and a great part of the Kunar valley. It was the active hostility between the Amir of Kabul (who claimed sovereignty of the same districts) and Umra Khan that led, firstly to the demarcation agreement of 1893 which fixed the boundary of Afghanistan in Kunar; and, secondly, to the invasion of Chitral by Umra Khan (who was no party to the boundary settlement), and the siege of the Chitral fort in 1895.

Ancient history
The area was the site of the ancient Gandhara kingdom of Apraca from the 1st century BCE to the 1st century CE, and a stronghold of the Aspasioi, a western branch of the Ashvakas (q.v) of the Sanskrit texts who had earlier offered stubborn resistance to the Macedonian invader Alexander the Great in 326 BCE. The whole region came under Kushan control after the conquests of Kujula Kadphises during the first century CE.

Alexander the Great
Alexander turned south from Aornus and continued march towards the Indus, but the greatest surprise during the march came when he neared the town of Nysa (former name of Bajaur). The local people and even the flora seemed strangely out of place in these mountains. The Nysains placed their dead in cedar coffin in the trees - some of which Alexander accidentally set on fire - and made wine from grapes, unlike other tribes in the area. The Acuphis, the chief man of the city, who has been sent to them along with other thirty leaders, begged him not to harm their towns as they were descendants of settlers that the god Dionysus placed their generation before. Their prolific ivy, a plant sacred to Dionysus that nowhere else in the mountain, was proof they were the people blessed by god. Then they were only commanded to give him 300 cavalry, after which he restored their freedom and allow them to live under their own laws, having made Acuphis governor of the city. Alexander took his son and grandson as hostages. He sacrificed there to Bacchus under this god’s others name of Dionysus.

Bajaur casket
The Bajaur casket, also called the Indravarma reliquary, year 63, or sometimes referred to as the Avaca inscription, is an ancient reliquary from the area of Bajaur in ancient Gandhara, in the present-day Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. It is dated to around 5-6 CE. It proves the involvement of the Scythian kings of the Apraca, in particular King Indravarman, in Buddhism. The casket is made of schist.

Bajaur massacre
In 1518, Babur had invested and conquered the fortress of Bajaur, The Gabar-Kot from Sultan Mir Haider Ali Gabari the Jahangirian Sultan and gone on to conquer Bhera on the river Jhelum, a little beyond the salt ranges. Babur claimed these areas as his own, because they had been part of Taimur's empire. Hence, "picturing as our own the countries once occupied by the Turks", he ordered that "there was to be no overrunning or plundering [of the countryside]". It may be noted that this applied to areas which did not offer resistance, because earlier, at Bajaur, where the Pashtun tribesmen had resisted, he had ordered a general massacre, with their women and children being made captive.

Babur justifies this massacre by saying, "the Bajauris were rebels and at enmity with the people of Islam, and as, by heathenish and hostile customs prevailing in their midst, the very name of Islam was rooted out...".

As the Bajauris were rebels and inimical to the people of Islam, the men were subjected to a general massacre and their wives and children were made captive. At a guess, more than 3,000 men met their death. We entered the fort and inspected it. On the walls, in houses, streets and alleys, the dead lay, in what numbers! Those walking around had to jump over the corpses.

Battle of Malandari Pass
From late 1585 into 1586, forces of the Mughal army led by Zain Khan Koka, at the direction of the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great, waged a military campaign to subdue the Yusufzai tribes of Bajaur and Swat. The Mughal operation, which culminated in the Battle of the Malandari Pass resulted in an Afghan victory and a military embarrassment for Abkar.

Princely state
Bajaur was a princely state run by the Nawab of Khar. The Last and most prominent Nawab was Abdul Subhan Khan, who ruled until 1990.

Recent decades
During the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, the area was a critical staging ground for Afghan and local mujahideen to organise and conduct raids. It still hosts a large population of Afghan refugees sympathetic to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a mujahideen leader ideologically close to the Arab militants. Today, the United States believes militants based in Bajaur launch frequent attacks on American and Afghan troops in Afghanistan.

Airstrikes
An aerial attack, executed by the United States targeting Ayman al-Zawahiri, took place in a village in Bajaur Agency on January 13, 2006, killing 18 people. Al-Zawahiri was not found among the dead and the incident led to severe outrage in the area.

On October 30, 2006, 80 people were killed in Bajaur when Pakistani forces attacked a religious school they said was being used as a militant training camp. There are many unconfirmed reports that the October attack was also carried out by the United States or NATO forces, but was claimed by Islamabad over fears of widespread protest similar to those after the US bombing in January 2006. Maulana Liaqat, the head of the seminary, was killed in the attack. Liaqat was a senior leader of the pro-Taliban movement Tanzim Nifaz Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM), that spearheaded a violent Islamic movement in Bajaur and the neighbouring Malakand areas in 1994. The TNSM had led some 5,000 men from the Pakistani areas of Dir, Swat and Bajaur across the Mamund border into Afghanistan in October 2001, to fight US-led troops. In what is thought to be a reprisal for the October strike in Bajaur, in November, a suicide bomber killed dozens in an attack on an army training school in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Bajaur offensive
Loi sum is on a strategic location, road come from four sides, (khar, Nawagi, Tangai and Inzari), so approach was easy from Charmang and Ambar. That was the reason that this area was affected mostly. A military offensive by the military of Pakistan (FC and Leaves) was launched in early 8 August 2008 to retake the border crossing near the town of Loi-Sum, 12 km from khar from militants loyal to Tehrik-e-Taliban, the so-called Pakistani Taliban. In the two weeks following the initial battle, government forces pulled back to Khar and initiated aerial bombing and artillery barrages on presumed militant positions, which reportedly has all but depopulated Bajaur and parts of neighbouring Mohmand Agency, with an estimated 300,000 fleeing their homes. The estimate of casualties ran into the hundreds. The offensive was launched in the wake of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's visit to Washington in late July, and is believed by some to be in response to U.S. demands that Pakistan prevent the FATA being used as a safe haven by insurgents fighting American and NATO troops in Afghanistan. However, the offensive was decided by the military, not the civilian government. The bloody bombing of Pakistan Ordnance Factories in Wah on August 21, 2008, came according to Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, as a response to the Bajaur offensive. after a few weeks, the Pak army came to battlefield. In an initial way toward the Loi sum Taliban did not resist and let them to come to middle position, when they reach to Rashakai, (3–4 km from Loi sum) Talaiban started to attack them but the Army was far stronger than their expectation. For several weeks they stayed in Rashakai, then 1st attempt Army come to loi sum, stay for whole day and come back to Rashakai, In 2nd attempt was the same, and 3rd attempt they come to loi sum and took the control of the area. Army continues there journey, control the main road of Bajaur from Khar to Nawagi, and the peripheral areas were still in the hold of Taliban. After nine months of vigorous clashes between government security forces and Taliban, military forces have finally claimed to have forced militants out of Bajaur Agency, and advanced towards strongholds of Taliban in the region. According to figures provided by the Government of Pakistan, 1,600 militants were killed and more than 2,000 injured, while some 150 civilians also died and about 2,000 were injured in the fighting. The military operation forced more than 300,000 people to flee their homes and take shelter in IDP camps in settled districts of the province. To date, more than 180,000 IDPs have returned to their homes in Bajaur Agency, facing widespread destruction to their lives, livelihoods and massive unemployment. In August, 2012, the Pakistani Army de-listed Bajaur as conflict zone.

Media coverage
From 2008 through 2010, Al Jazeera English produced multiple features of the ongoing conflict between Pakistani military forces and Taliban militants in the agency.

In early 2013, VICE News founder Shane Smith accompanied and documented a raid on suspected Taliban fighters by the Pakistani Frontier Corps' Bajaur Scouts in Bajaur Agency.

Islamic State
As of March 2024, the Islamic State's Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) maintains an operational presence in Bajaur, conducting 4 attacks in 2021, 21 attacks in 2022, and 18 in 2023. The majority of ISIS-K attacks in Bajaur occur in Mamond tehsil, followed by Inayat Kali, Salarzo, and Khar tehsils.

Administrative divisions
Bajaur District is currently subdivided into seven tehsils (subdistricts).

Demographics
At the time of the 2017 census the district had a population of 1,090,987. Bajaur had a sex ratio of 962 females per 1000 males and a literacy rate of 29.93% - 48.65% for males and 10.97% for females. The entire population was rural. 37.47% of the population was under 10 years of age. 348 (0.03%) people in the district were from religious minorities. Pashto was the predominant language, spoken by 99.21% of the population.

Nationality
Bajaur District is 99.73% Pakistani with a relatively small population of inhabitants identifying as of a non-Pakistani nationality.

Tribal affiliation
Bajaur is inhabited near exclusively by Tarkanri (Mamund, Kakazai, Wur and Salarzai) Pashtuns, as well as a smaller population of Utmankhel, Wazir, Safi, and Yousafzai tribes. Gujaran and Swatis are also present. The Utmankhel are at the southeast of Bajaur, while Mamund are at the southwest, and the Tarkalanri are at the north of Bajaur. Its border with Afghanistan's Kunar province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistan and the region.

Language
The mother tongue of the majority of Bajauris are expectedly 99.21% Pashto, reflective of the indigenous Pashtun (also 'Pakthtun') population that inhabits much of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK, for which the province derives its name) and eastern Afghanistan. Other residents are first-language Urdu speakers, the national language of Pakistan, while relatively small numbers are native Balochi, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Saraiki, Brahvi (Brahui), and Punjabi speakers.

Religion
Bajaur District is nearly entirely Muslim with its two smallest tehsils, Barang and Bar Chamer Kand being entirely Muslim while Mamund, Salarzai, Utmal Khel, and Nawagai are 98.98–98.99% Muslim with 13–37 Ahmadis. The Khar Bajaur Tehsil, containing the district's largest settlement and the district headquarters, Khar, contains the largest non-Muslim population with 158 Christians, 53 Ahmadi, and a single Hindu resident, though the tehsil is still 99.91% Muslim.

Governance and politics
Constituents of Bajaur District are politically represented locally through elected union councils, town governments, and tehsil governments. The district government includes a deputy commissioner, additional deputy commissioner, two assistant commissionars, tehsildars (heads of tehsil), district agricultural officer, district educational officer, medical superintendent, district coordination officer, assistant director for local government, and district population welfare officer.

Provincial Assembly Members
At the provincial level, constituents are represented by the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an elected unicameral legislature of 145 seats in the provincial capital of Peshawar, with 115 general seats, 26 reserved for women, and 4 reserved for non-Muslims.

12th Provincial Assembly
The 8 February 2024 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial election, based on the results of a 2023 digital census, granted Bajaur District a fourth seat in the Provincial Assembly. Due to the controversial national ban on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, PTI electoral candidates, including the winner of the PK-19 Bajaur-I constituency, were forced to run as independent candidates. The elections appointed Hamid Ur-Rehman, Wahid Gul, and Sardar Khan to represent Bajaur District in the 12th Provincial Assembly which secured a PTI (independent) majority with 68.5% of provincial assembly seats.

A PTI candidate for the new PK-22 Bajaur-IV constituency election, Rehan Zeb Khan, was shot and killed by an ISIS-K attacker while in his car in a market in Bajaur District, leading to the postponement of that constituency's election, as well as in NA-8.

National Assembly Members
A PTI candidate for the NA-8 constituency election, Rehan Zeb Khan, was shot and killed by an ISIS-K attacker while in his car in a market in Bajaur District, leading to the postponement of that constituency's election, as well as in PK-22.

Education
In Bajaur, the total number of SSC-level schools registered with Malakand Board are 150 (61 government-run, 89 private-run). The number of HSSC-level colleges are 56 (18 government-run, 38 private-run).

Education rank
In district school education rank of Pakistan, the position of is going downward, according to the Alif Ailaan ranking, the rank of Bajaur in 2014, 2015 and 2016 is the following

Tourism
Bajaur is located near swat and District Dir, so the climates of these districts are comparatively same.

Koh-i-Mor
Koh-i-Mor is the highest peak in Bajaur. It is also called three peak mountain. Its top is covered with snow in winter and clouds are touching its peak. The peak of Koh-i-Mor is visible from the Peshawar valley when there is no clouds or Haze.

It is an historical mountain, its history is found two thousands year back, here at the foot of the Koh-i-mor mountain, that Alexander the Great founded the ancient city of Nysa and the Nysaean colony, traditionally said to have been founded by Dionysus. The Koh-i-Mor has been identified as the Meros of Arrian's history—the three-peaked mountain from which the god issued

For hiking, like Jahaz Banda and Fairy meadow, kon-I-mor is the best, it is about four hours trekking non-local and two and a half for locals. On the way you will see a lot of variation. In some places you will pass through thick forest of fine trees, some places have shrubs, and some place you will see some different kinds of trees.

People are living in koh-i-mor up-to near the top. These people have simple houses with a single room, there is no extra boundary wall. Rooms are made like caves in mountain. Majority of them are shepherds.

Chenarran (platane Orientalis)
At the base of Koh-i-Mor a lot of chenar trees along with spring. Locals people are coming here and enjoy the nature, making their own cooking, some have load speakers, music, etc. majority people come along with their families.

Gabar Chenna
It is situated in Tehsil Salarzai, it has snowy water, people are come from all over the Bajaur and DIR to enjoy it especially in Ramadan and Eids. It is a historically spring, once here was a undefeated king ....

Charmang Hill
The Charmang hills in Bajaur are covered with pine trees and also the roads is made up to top of hill. The road goes on top of hill from bottom to top. In winter, the whole mountain is covered with snow for months.

Raghagan DAM
Raghagan Dam is situated in Tehsil Salarzai. It a tourist spot nowadays. Boats are present here for tourists.

Agriculture
Bajaur is a semi-independent in agriculture field, The soil is fertile but the no proper irrigation system. Harvest Crops; People grow wheat, maze and rices in some areas. All the crops is mainly dependent on rain. Vegetable and Fruits; The different types of vegetables are growing in Bajaur. Potato, tomato, onion, lady fingers, spinach, and orange parsimon, etc

Marble
Marbles are found in various regions, mainly in Inzari and Nawagai. There are different types of marble supper white, Badle etc. In the local areas are marble factories, cut to into different sizes of the base of demand, and supply to all over the country and even abroad.

Marble factory
The marble cutting factories are found in Shaikh kali and Umary. The supply to the factories of marble mainly from the local mountains and they also bring the marble from ambar and Zairat. These different types and variety of marble then supply all over the country

Nephrite
Nephrite (jade) is the precious stone, Rs 3000–5000 per kg. The mines are found in Inzari and some area in Utmankhail tehsil. It exports mainly to China, The Chinese thought so too, and for thousands of years, nephrite articles had a special value and signature and skilled artisans carved increasingly intricate designs. Maybe because it was so rare in China, yet useful for its toughness, nephrite became the status symbol of the rulers, considered imperial stone.

Olives and olive oil
The KPK government has started olive production projects in the Bajaur district. Previously, many wild olive trees are present in the area having no such importance. They use agricultural techniques to convert these wild trees into more farmer friendly and productive plants. With new projects of planting olive trees on more than 150000 acres of land, the Bajaur district will be the olive hub of Pakistan. Moreover, the district administration has installed olive oil extraction machine for locals. this machine started producing olive oil this year. More than 200 kg of oil has been extracted which is just a beginning. In coming years you will see huge transformation. These projects will change the fate and economical status of the district. The locals will have more new employment opportunities cause reduction in unemployment in the tribal area.