Attock District

Attock District اٹک
District
District location within Punjab Province
Country	Pakistan
Province	Punjab
Capital	Attock
No. of tehsils	6
Government
• Nazim	Maj Tahir Sadiq
• Naib nazim	Malik Muhammad Sameem Khan
Area
• Total	6,857 km2 (2,648 sq mi)
Elevation	2,758 m (9,049 ft)
Time zone	UTC+5 (PST)
Languages	Punjabi, Hindko, Pashto, Urdu, English
www.attocknews.com www.attockonians.com

Attock District (Template:Lang-ur) is a district in the north-west Punjab Province of Pakistan.

The district was created in April 1904 by the merger of Talagang Tehsil in the Jhelum District with the Pindigheb, Fatehjang and Attock tehsils from Rawalpindi District of the Punjab province of British India.

Attock District is a place of great historic significance. Alexander the Great of Macedonia passed through it as did the first Mughal, Babar, and the various Afghan Sultans before him.

Emperor Akbar the Great, the grandson of Babar, recognizing the strategic importance of this area in 1581 built his famous Attock Fort complex here. The fall of Mughal Empire in eighteenth century saw the rise of Hindu Maratha state and Sikhs in Punjab and Durrani Afghans to the west. Once again Attock became a battle ground between two contending powers. Maratha Peshwa's brother Raghunathrao won Attock and flagged Hindu dominance over this area in 1758. But in Third battle of Panipat Marathas lost to Ahmead Shah Abdali and lost the control of this region. British finally ended the feud by subjugating both Sikhs and Afghans in the nineteenth century.

Name

Attock District original name was Attock it changes Campbellpur after the Briton Sir Campbell who founded the city of Campbellpore. The name of the district was changed to Attock as of 1978 again. Attock city is the district headquarters.

Neighbours

Attock District is bordered by the Haripur and Swabi districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to the north, the district of Rawalpindi to the east, the district of Chakwal to the southeast, the district of Mianwali to the southwest, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's districts of Kohat and Nowshera to the west and northwest. The river Indus forms the western boundary of the district.

Kabul River

Attock is the eastern terminus of the Kabul-Attock corridor to the Central Asia through which for centuries have passed the armies and the caravans alike. However unlike the modern highways, this corridor is not a work of engineering marvel but an act of nature as it was naturally carved through the Hindu Kush Mountains by the legendary Kabul River.

The 435 miles long journey of River Kabul starts just west of the Kabul city in Afghanistan and ends at Attock where it ultimately falls into the River Indus.

Resources

Dhullian is a village in Pindigheb Tehsil. This village has important resources namely oil and gas. It has been providing oil since the 1930s. There are all types of soil as mountains, plain areas fertile grounds and it also has a river flowing through it. There is a famous Ghala Mandi located in Dhullian Chowk. Here 90% of the total population area agricultural. This historical village is located at the end of Attock District.

Geography and climate

Attock District has a climate of hot summers and cold winters. The northern part of the district is more humid and is more moderate in climate relative to the southern part of the district due to the higher altitude. Geographically, the district is mainly hills, plateaus and dissected plains. The Indus River flows on the northern and western borders of the district. After Haripur, the Haro River passes through the north of the tehsil of Attock where there is a flood plain with fertile soil. The District's average annual rainfall is 783 mm.

Population

According to the 1998 census of Pakistan the district had a population of 1,274,935 of which 20.45% were urban, The estimated population in 2008 was 1.58 million.

The city also had a significant Muhajir population. In fact, Attock city was dominated by the immigrants from India but gradually their population has dwindled and now they are a minority - mostly living in old quarters of Attock city.

Almost 50% of the population of this city near area chachh are of Pukhtuns/(Pathans) origin, who speak Hindko language. There is also significant villages of predominately Pukhto speaking Pukhtuns in Attock , who have managed to keep their Pukhto language, but are often bilingual in both Hindko and Pukhto. The remaining population consists of Bangash, Sayyeds, Gujjars and other non-Pathan tribes.

A large percentage of the population of Chhachh have Pukhtun roots and are mostly descendants of the tribes of Durrani, Alizai, Yousafzai, Kakar, Dilazak, Tareen, Tahir Khel (Tahirkheli), Qazikhel, khattak, Tanoli, Sadozai and Barakzai. They arrived in the area around 1000 A.D as part of the army of Mahmud of Ghazni and made it their permanent home after defeating the Hindu confederation near Hazro.

Proof of this is that many of the villages & individual quarters of chachh are named after certain Pakhtun personalities & tribes, markedly proving who had founded them. For example Aka Khel, Nasozai, Inayat Khel (the founding and Khan tribe of Ghorghushti village), Utman Khel, Saleem Khan, Ghorghushti, Adalzai, Barazai, etc. Most of these Pukhtuns now refer to themselves as Pathans and speak Hindko as their main language, were as the pukhto speaking Pakhtuns are still referred to as Pakhtuns.

Some of the Pashto speaking pashtuns of chach (Attock) belong to the following Pashtun tribes namely Ismail Khel, Tarakhel Khel, Salat Khel, Hisab (Yusuf) Khel, Tur Khel and Babarkarzai. There is also a steady flow of Pashtuns from Afghanistan settling into the area, and are hospitably welcomed by the local Pashtuns.

Chach Pathans/Pukhtuns are revered for their fighting ability in ancient times and more recently for their many advancements in education, culture, and society. It is claimed that Hindko was the original ancient language of Chhachh when it was part of the Gandhara civilisation and was adopted over time by the Pukhtun tribes of the area. The remaining population of Chach consists of Mughals, Kashmiris, Jats, Bangash, Rajputs, qureshis, Gujjars, Syeds,(Pakistan)

Main tribes

The Khattar, Syed, Paracha, Awans, Pathans, Bangashs, Gujjars, Rajput, qureshis, Mughals and Shaikhs are the main tribes of Attock District. The main Rajput tribes are the Alpial, Jodhra, Janjua Chauhan and Bhatti. The Chauhan of Khaur, the Alpial of Chakri and Jodhra of Kamlial are important families in the district. The main Tribe of Royal Barlas Mughal's is Gheba.The Gheba Sardars of kot Fateh khan,Dhurnal,Malal,Dhari-Rai-Ditta, Shah-rai-saidullah are important families in the District.

Pathan/pashtun

The Pashtun, or as they are referred to in this region, as Pathans are found principally in the Attock District and belongs to Qais Abdur Rashid(father of all pashtuns). There are two Pathan settlements in that district, one in the south-west of Pindigheb Tehsil at Makhad and in the Narrara hills , the other in the Attock Tehsil, chiefly in the Chhachh illaqa. In addition, there are also a few scattered villages, in Rawalpindi District.

According to the 1901 Census of India, these were the main sub-divisions of the Pathans in Attock District.

Tribe	Attock Tehsil	Pindigheb Tehsil	Fateh Jang Tehsil	Talagang Tehsil	Total
Akhund Khel	722				722
Alizai	4,415				4,415
Babar		615			615
Babi	581				581
Barakzai	578				578
Dilazak	1,070	3	43		1,116
Jamal Khel		579			579
Lodhi	727	1	5		733
Manduri	864				864
Piru Khel (Afridi)	594				594
Saddo Khel	801				801
Sagri Khattak		4,759			4,759
Tareen	658				658

Sagri Khattak Pathans

The Pindigheb Pathans are practically all Sagri Pathans, a branch of the Bulaki Khattaks. The Babar family of Bhangi Khel Khattaks is also represented in the Narara hills. Another branch of the Khattaks, the Jamal Khel also have a presence in settlements near the town of Makhad.

Accoding to their traditions, the khattaks came across the Indus river from the neighbourhood of Kohat, and drove out the Awan, whom they found in possession. The khattaks look up to the Khans of Makhad" Sher Ahmed Khattak", as their headmen. They own seven villages, of which Makhad and Narara are the largest. The village of Hadowali is their boundary to the east, where the Awan are their neighbours. Throughout the tract they occupy, they have completely dispossed all other tribes. Their speech is the soft or western dialect of Pashto.

Chhachh Pathans

The Attock Pathans are found in two parts of the tehsil, those of Sarwala, and those of Chhachh. The Chhachh Pathans have very little in common with the Sagri khattaks, as they are separated by the Kala Chita mountains. The Chhachhies are also known as Chhachi (Pashtun). The Chhachh have Hindko and pushto speaking community, and have much in common with the Pashtun tribes settled in the neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Chhachh have pukhtun culture and peoples are following Pashtunwali code of conduct strictly like in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Mostly pathans in chhachh came with Ghaznavi from Afghanistan.

The largest clan are the Alizai, who include the Tahirkheli, one of three main septs of the Alizai. The Tahirkheli inhabit villages along the Haro river. The other tribe along the Haro are the Sadozai, and both they and the Alizai, are branches of the Durrani-tareens tribe. Together with the Manduri and Barahzai, who are also found in numbers in the district, they are all sections of the great Yousafzai tribe. By far the greater proportion of the Attock Pathans are Yousafzai, allied to the Yousafzai of Swabi and Mardan districts and other tribes are kakar, nasozai, barakzai, khattaks, lodhi, Bangash, ismail khel, utmanzai, sadozai and many others

The Attock District Gazetteer gives the following description regarding Pathan settlement in the district:

The connection of Pathans with the tahsil is not very ancient. The earliest comers may have been the Lodhis, who are a section of the Ghilzai nation, and accompanied Mahmud Ghaznavi as mercenaries on his invasions of India. Their numbers are inconsiderable. Next after a long interval came the Dilazak who were gradually driven from the Safed Koh by the Yousafzai.About the end of the 16th Century they crossed the river, and found the Chhachh, then a swamp being slowly recovered from the Indus, in possession of the Gujars. Apparently they never settled down and in consequence of the turmoil caused by their constant attempt to recover Mardan illaqa of Peshawar from the Yousafzais, were finally deported by Jahangir and scattered over the India Peninsula. "A Gazetteer of Attock District 1929 Part A page 91</ref>

The great invasion of the Chhachh took place much latter. About the end of the 17th Century the Khattaks, pushing up from Kohat at the south,began to press on the flanks of the Yousafzai between Attock and Peshawer of which they had been put in charge. At the same time too the Gujars of Hazara has summoned the Yousafzais across the river to help against the Tareen, a tribe of original Afghans of Jewish and Arab origin, who had fallen on the Haripur plain. Later in the middle of the 18th Century the Piro Khels who are Afridis and Pathans proper, came with Nadir Shah perhaps from Persia, and remained behind when he returned.By the end of the 18th Century Dilazaks, Tareens, Yousafzais and Afridis had settled down in the Tahsil, with the Yousafzai numerically immensely superior. Since then no immigration has taken place. The chief accretion to Pathan strength has been that of the Akhund Khel. Akhund is the title given to any chief of special sanctity, and Akhundzada is the title of his descendants. Many Akhund Khel are by origin Gujar and Awan. , perform no priestly functions, and live like ordinary Pathans. The Tahirkh who inhabit the north-east of the Tahsil below the main wall of the Gandgarh Hills and along the line of the Haro by tradition and sentiment have little to with Attock. They live or own land in the Hazara District, and many are Jagirdars.

The Chhachh ilaqa is almost entirely held by the chachhe, as is the Nala estates, along the Haro river valey. The Attock chachhe were the earliest group of Pothoharis to start emigrating to Europe and North America.There are now large communities of Chhachh Pathan settled in British cities, such as Bradford and Manchester

Hindu population before 1947

Attock District had a heterogeneous mix of religious and ethnic populations before 1947. The Gazetteer of the Attock District 1930 records

Hindus, who make up 8.5% of the total population are by tribes and in order of numerical importance, Khatris, Aroras, Brahmans and Mohyals

History

According to the Imperial Gazetteer of India:

The history of the District is practically the same as that of Rawalpindi district. Hassan Abdal, the chief relic of the Buddhist period, was one of the towns subordinate to the capital of Taxila, and under the Gakhars, Mughals, and Sikhs the District followed the fortunes of Rawalpindi. The chief historical events recorded are the defeat of Anand Pal near Ohind by Mahmud of Ghazni, the foundation of ATTOCK by Akbar, and its vicissitudes in the Sikh Wars. The District was constituted in 1904,

the tahsils of Attock, Pindi Gheb, and Fatahjang being transferred

from Rawalpindi District, and that of Talagang from Jhelum.

Ancient history

Pāṇini was an ancient Indian scholar who was born between the 7th and 4th centuries BC in Shalatula, a town near to Attock on the Indus river in present day Pakistan. He is regarded by scholars as one of the most innovative people in the whole development of knowledge. He was a Sanskrit grammarian who gave a comprehensive and scientific theory of phonetics, phonology, and morphology.

The Astadhyayi (also known as Astaka) is Panini's major work.

In this work Panini distinguishes between the language of sacred texts and the usual language of communication. Panini gives formal production rules and definitions to describe Sanskrit grammar. Starting with about 1700 basic elements like nouns, verbs, vowels, consonants he put them into classes. The construction of sentences, compound nouns etc. is explained as ordered rules operating on underlying structures in a manner similar to modern theory. In many ways Panini's constructions are similar to the way that a mathematical function is defined today

Citied from (J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, Panini Biography, 2000) MacTutor History of Mathematics

• Attock Fort

Attock fort was completed in 1583 under the supervision of Khawaja Shamsuddin Khawafi, a minister of Emperor Akbar. The Mughal caravan sarai outside the fort, which is almost on the Grand Trunk (GT) Road, was also built during this period.

• Gandhara

Gandhara (/ɡənˈdɑrə/) was an historic region of ancient India, (which corresponds to areas of north west Pakistan including Attock). Situated astride the middle Indus River, the region had Taxila and Peshawar as its chief cities. It was originally a province of the Persian Empire and was reached (327 B.C.) by Alexander the Great. The region passed to Chandragupta, founder of the Maurya empire, in the late 4th cent. B.C., and under Asoka was converted (mid-3d cent.) to Buddhism. It was part of Bactria from the late 3d cent. to the 1st cent. B.C. Under the Kushan dynasty (1st cent.–3d cent. A.D.), and especially under Kanishka, Gandhara developed a noted school of sculpture, consisting mainly of images of Buddha and relief’s representing scenes from Buddhist texts, but with marked Greco-Roman elements of style. The art form flourished in Gandhara until the 5th century, when the region was conquered by the Huns.

Khatris

Khatris, who number about 24000 make up the greater portion of the Hindu population.

In Tallagang the Chhachi Sardars, whose ancestors held the tract under the Sikhs are large Jagirdars but reside almost always in Gujranwala district, and have really little to do with Tallagang.

PP19 Attock-V

Capt (r) Malik Aitabar Khan

PML(Q) now joined PML(N)

Administration

The district of Attock is administratively subdivided into six tehsils, each with an elected Nazim:

Attock District: Tehsils and Nazims

Tehsil	Nazim
Attock	Qazi Khalid Mehmood'
Fateh Jang	Sardar Arjamand Zaheer Afzal Khan
Hassan Abdal	Haji Shafqat Ali Khan Tahirkheli
Jand	Sardar AAmer Khan
Pindi Gheb	Malik Liaqat Ali khan
Hazro	Raza Khan

Senators

The district has been represented in the Senate of Pakistan by the following senators:

• Late Ahmad Waheed Akhtar (Pakistan Peoples Party)
• Sardar Mehmood Advocate
• PPP Central Leader Malik Hakmeen Khan

MNAs

• Shiekh Aftab Ahmed (Chief Whip PMLN).
• Perwaiz Elahi (PMLQ).
• Sardar Salim Haider Khan (PPPP).

Village of Thatta

Village of Thatta and "Tarap" have been two of the most important villages of the District. It is believed to have been founded by Sher Shah Suri, while some believe that these was founded much earlier, in the time of Alexander's invasion. The Khattar family of this village has played a very important role in the progress of the country and the region.

Prominent personalities of this village include:

• Sardar Lal Khan, known for his courage and bravery against the Bristish Raj and Sikhs. He fought many wars against them and never accepted their government. He was offered a lot of property, but declined; rather, he lost a lot of his own property as a Freedom Fighter and political activist. Although British colonial rulers did bring some other people against him politically by rewarding them with big jageers, his influence never ended. His sons, Sardar Zakri Khan and Sardar Ghulam Khan, also worked hard in the political movement against British Raj.
• Major General Javed Afzal, Brig Afzal's Son, who served with the British Army.
• Brig. Afzal, political and social figure, Father of Javed Afzal.

Current important personalities include:

• Sardar Saleem Khan, is a grandson of Sardar Lal Khan and son of Sardar Ghulam Khan, a social worker, political activist, and founder of various charity and philanthropic organizations, is currently Chairman of the Social Development Organization, one of the largest NGOs in the District.
• Sardar Abdul Rashid Khan,Advocate, elder brother of Sardar Saleem Khan,and son of Sardar Ghulam Khan has played a very active role in the restoration of Judiciary.He is a distinguished lawyer of district. He is a well respected and learned person, who commands respect in the whole region, due to his humble and down to earth behaviour.
• Cdr Abdul Qayyum Khan is also an important and widely respected personality. He also belongs to Village of Thatta and grandson of Sardar Lal Khan. He has been playing a very active social and political role since after his retirement from Pakistan Navy on completion of his meritorious service.
• Sardar Manzar Ameer is tehsil Nazim

See also

• Tarap, Attock
• Chhachh
• Hazro, Punjab
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
• Swabi
• Nowshera

External links

• Attockonians
• Attock District
• Village Tarap