Orakzai

Orakzai (Pashto: اورکزی) is a Pashtun tribe settled in the Orakzai Agency of Pakistan. It consists of eighteen clans. Most of the members are situated in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.

Location

The Orakzai are a Pashtun tribe on the Kohat border of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, near the provincial capital of Peshawar,. The Orakzais inhabit the mountains to the north-west of Kohat district, bounded on the north and east by the Afridis or Khyber Agency , on the south by the Miranzai Valley and on the west by the Zaimukht country and the Safed Koh mountains. Due to limited resources and fertile land, many Orakzai have settled in Pakistan's major urban centres such as Hangu, Tall, Peshawar, Attock, (Nowshera-Amangarh),Islamabad, Sialkot, Wazirabad, Lahore, Abbottabad and Karachi.

Religion

The Orakzais are predominantly Sunni Muslims.

History

Origins

The Orakzai tribes take their name, which literally means the lost son (Wrak Dzoy), from a romantic legend about their ancestor, Sikandar Shah who was a prince from Iran. He was exiled or lost, and after many adventures he married and settled in Tirah. One branch, the Ali Khel, has been traced to Swat, whence they were expelled by the other inhabitants and it is not improbable that the whole tribe consists of refugee clans of the surrounding races. They cultivate a good deal of the Khanki and Kurmana valleys in the winter, but in the hot months retire to the heights of Tirah, of which they occupy the southern half called the Mastura Valley.

The Kohat Gazetteer of 1883-84 records

'The Orakzai tribes are said to have been converted by the Tirah Saiads about the beginning of the present century . The Bangashes of Samizai were probably converted a little earlier ,

British era

The government of British India estimated that the tribe had 28,000 fighting men, but this must have been an exaggeration as the area could not possibly support the implied population of over 100,000. They were the object of various British military expeditions, notably in 1855, 1868, 1869, 1891, and the Tirah campaign of 1897.

Modern times

In October 2008, with Taliban influence growing in their area, an Orakzai tribal gathering was called to establish a militia to fight the Taliban, part of a growing trend among tribes in the North-west to oppose the former rulers of neighbouring Afghanistan. A teenage suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden truck into the meeting, killing 85 and injuring more than 200. Following the attack, tribal elders vowed to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Notable people

• The ex- governor of NWFP Lt. Gen. (retd) Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai is from the Orakzai tribe.
• Major. Abdul Jalil Orakzai Shaheed (Sitara-i-Jurat, Indo-Pakistani War of 1965)
• Dr Tanvir Orakzai, PhD, currently working in Singapore. www.orakzai.org
• Muhammad yousaf Orakzai (late). Inspector General of Police.NWFP
• Sultan Hanif Orakzai Deputy Inspector General of Police .Currently working as Joint Secretary ,PM secretarit ,Islamabad.
• Dr.Munir Ahmad Orakzai, WHO, Peshawar, NWFP.
• Shahrayar Khan, President of PCB and Career Bureaucrat.
• Shahid Orakzai, Renowned Senior Journalist and former editor Daily The Muslim.

See also

• Tirahi,
• Wachpal

Source

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)