History of Khybar Pakhtunkhwa
Mughal Era:
In 1519, Babar's aid was invoked by the Gigianis against the Umr Khel
Dilazaks (both Pashtun tribes), and his victory at Panipat in 1526 gave
him control of the province. On his death in 1530 Mirza Kamran became a
feudatory of Kabul. By his aid the Ghworia Khels overthrew the Dilazaks
who were loyal to Humayun, and thus obtained control over Peshawar; but
about 1550 Gajju Khan (Khan Kajju) (Mandanr Yusufzi), at the head of a
Grand Confederation of the Khakhay Khels, defeated the Ghworia Khels at
Shaikh Tapur. Humayun, however, had now overthrown Kamran, and in 1552
he entered Peshawar, which he garrisoned strongly, so that Gajju Khan
(Khan Kajju) (Mandanr Yusufzai) laid siege to it in vain. Nevertheless,
the Mughal hold on these territories was weak and often precarious
On Humayun's death in 1556 Kabul became the apanage of Mirza Muhammad
Hakim, Akbar's brother; and in 1564 he was driven back on Peshawar by
the ruler of Badakhshan, and had to be reinstated by imperial troops.
Driven out of Kabul again two years later, he showed his ingratitude by
invading the Punjab; but eventually Akbar forgave him, visited Kabul,
and restored his authority. When Mirza Hakim died (1585), Akbar's Rajput
general, Kunwar Man Singh, occupied Peshawar and Kabul, where the
imperial rule was re-established, Man Singh becoming governor of the
province of Kabul. In 1586, however, the Mohmands and others revolted
under Jalala, the Roshania heretic, and invested Peshawar.
Man Singh, turning to attack them, found the Khyber closed and was
repulsed, but subsequently joined Akbar's forces. Meanwhile, the
Yusufzai and Mandaur Pashtuns had also fallen under the spell of the
Roshania heresy; and about 1587 Zain Khan, Kokaltash, was dispatched
into Swat and Bajaur to suppress them. The expedition resulted in the
disastrous defeat of the Mughals, Birbal, Akbar's favourite, being
killed. In 1592 the Pashtuns invested Peshawar, but Zain Khan relieved
the fortress, and in 1593 overran Tirah, Swat, and Bajaur. The
Roshanias, however, were still far from subdued. Tirah was their great
stronghold, and about 1620 a large Mughal force met with a severe defeat
in attempting to enter that country by the Sampagha pass.
Six years later Ihdad, the Roshania leader, was killed ; but
Jahangir's death in 1627 was the signal for a general Pashtun revolt,
and the Roshanias laid siege to Peshawar in 1630, but distrusting their
Afghan(Pashtun) allies retreated to Tirah. Mughal authority was thus
restored, and Tirah was invaded and pacified by the imperial troops in
an arduous campaign. Shah Jahan, however, attempted to govern the
Pashtuns despotically and caused great discontent. Nevertheless, Raja
Jagat Singh held Kohat and Kurram, and thus kept open the communications
with Kabul. In 1660 Tirah had to be pacified again; and in 1667 the
Yusufzai and Mandaur Pashtuns were strong enough to cross the Indus, and
were only defeated near Attock.
In 1672 Muhammad Amin Khan, Subahdar of Kabul, attempted to force the
Khyber, and lost his whole army, 40,000 men, with baggage and materiel.
Other disasters followed. At Gandab in 1673 the Afridis defeated a
second Mughal army, and in 1674 they defeated a third force at Khapash
and drove it into Bajaur. These reverses brought Aurangzeb in person to
Hasan Abdal, whence he dispatched a force to Kohat, while a second army
forced the Khyber.
Aurangzeb appears to have adopted a conciliatory policy towards the
Pashtuns, some of whom now received fiefs from the emperor. This policy
and their internal dissensions kept the country in a state of anarchy,
but prevented any concerted Afghan(Pashtun) rising against the Mughals.
Nevertheless, the Pashtuns overran the Pakhli district of Hazara early
in the eighteenth century and the Mughal power rapidly declined, until
in 1738 Nadir Shah defeated Nazir Shah, the Mughal governor of Kabul,
but allowed him as feudatory to retain that province, which included
Peshawar and Ghazni.
Of Nadir Shah's successors, Ahmad Shah Durrani indeed established
something more nearly approaching a settled government in the Peshawar
valley than had been known for years, but with the advent of Timur Shah
anarchy returned once more. On the death of Timur Shah his throne was
contested with varying fortunes by his sons, whose dissensions gave
ample opportunity to the local chieftains throughout the province of
establishing complete independence. Peshawar ultimately fell to the
Barakzai family; Dera Ismail Khan to the Sadozais.
Maratha Era
In April–May 1758, the
Marathas under
Raghunathrao captured
Punjab,
Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa defeating Durrani forces. Peshawar was captured by Marathas on 8 May 1758 when Pashtuns under
Timur Shah Durrani were defeated in the
Battle of Peshawar. However the Maratha rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was short-lived as Durrani re-captured the province in 1759.
Sikh Era
Sikh
invasions began in 1818 and from then until the British annexation the
Sikhs under Ranjit Singh steadily made themselves masters of the
country. In 1818 Dera Ismail Khan surrendered to a Sikh army. Five years
later the Sikhs harried the Marwat plain of Bannu. In 1836 all
authority was taken from the Nawabs of Dera Ismail Khan and a Sikh
Kardar appointed in their place. But it was not until after the first
Sikh War that the fort of Bannu was built and the Bannuchis brought
under the direct control of the Lahore Darbar by Herbert Edwardes.
Under the Pashtuns,
Hazara-i-Karlugh,
Gandhgarh and the
Gakhar territory were governed from
Attock; while
Kashmir collected the revenue from the upper regions of
Pakhli,
Damtaur and
Darband. In 1813, the Sikhs conquered the
fort of Attock,
at which time lower Hazara became tributary to them. Upper Hazara
shared the same fate in 1819, when the Sikhs conquered Kashmir. The
territory referred to as Hazara was united when it was bestowed as a
jagir to
Hari Singh Nalwa, Commander-in-Chief of the Sikh army, by
Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1822.
The Sikhs forayed into
Peshawar for the first time in 1818, but did not occupy the territory. In 1823, following the
Battle of Naushehra on the banks of the
Kabul river, Hari Singh Nalwa and his men chased the Pashtuns first to Peshawar and then to the mouth of the
Khyber Pass.
The Sikhs entered the city of Peshawar for a second time, once again
affirming to hold Peshawar as a tributary to the Sikh Court of
Lahore. After plundering the city they burnt its fortress, the
Bala Hissar. The Sikh occupation of Peshawar in 1834 was executed in a most unusual manner. By 1836, with the conquest of
Jamrud the frontier of the Sikh Kingdom bordered the foothills of the
Hindu Kush Mountains and the Khyber Pass formed its western boundary.
The death of Hari Singh in battle with the Pashtuns near Jamrud in
1837 brought home to Ranjit Singh, now nearing the close of his career,
the difficulty of administering his frontier acquisitions. On his death
the Sikh policy was changed. Turbulent and exposed tracts, like
Hashtnagar and Miranzai, were made over in
jagir to the local
chieftains, who enjoyed an almost complete independence, and a vigorous
administration was attempted only in the more easily controlled areas.
Of the Sikh governors, the best remembered for his bravery is Hari
Singh Nalwa (1834-1837) and that for his cruelty and barbaric executions
is Ranjit Singh's Italian General Avitabile (1838-1842).
The most significant contributions of Sikh rule to this region were the city of
Haripur, the first planned city in this entire region, and the forts of
Sumergarh (Bala Hissar, Peshawar) and
Fatehgarh (Fort of Jamrud at the mouth of the Khyber Pass)
British Era
Following the treaties of
Lahore and
Amritsar,
the British annexed the frontier territory after the proclamation of 29
March 1849. For a short time the Districts of Peshawar, Kohat, and
Hazara came under the direct control of the Board of Administration at
Lahore, but about 1850 they were formed into a regular Division under a
Commissioner. Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu, under one Deputy-Commissioner,
formed part of the Leiah Division till 1861, when two
Deputy-Commissioners were appointed and both Districts were included in
the Derajat Division, an arrangement maintained until the formation of
the North-West Frontier Province.
The internal administration differed in no way from the rest of the
Punjab. But to maintain the peace of the border the Board directly
ordered the raising of a special force—the Punjab Frontier Force. It
consisted at first of 5 regiments of cavalry, the corps of Guides, 5
regiments of infantry, 3 light field-batteries, two garrison batteries,
two companies of sappers and miners, and the Sind camel corps. Various
changes occurred in the composition of the force, which at length, in
1886, was removed from the control of the Punjab Government and
amalgamated with the regular army.
The attitude of the people during the
Indian Rebellion of 1857 is the highest tribute that can be paid to the success of the internal administration.
In the history of the frontier the interest of that period of stress centred at Peshawar. The
Hindustani
regiments at Dera Ismail Khan and Kohat were disarmed without
difficulty, and troops and levies were hurried away to strengthen the
garrison of Peshawar or join the British forces cis-Indus. The situation
in Peshawar was very different. The District contained a large
Hindustani force, which proved mutinous to the core. It was thought
possible that the Amir of Kabul might pour an army through the Khyber.
For one reason or another almost every powerful tribe beyond the
border was under a blockade. When the news of the outbreak reached
Peshawar, a council of war was at once held and measures adopted to meet
the situation. The same night the Guides started on their march to
Delhi. On May 21 the 55th Native Infantry rose at Mardan. The majority
made good their escape across the Indus, only to perish after fearful
privations at the hands of the hill-men of the Hazara border. On May 22,
warned by this example, the authorities of Peshawar disarmed the 24th,
27th, and 51st Native Infantry, with the result that Pathans not only of
Peshawar, but also from across the border, came flocking in to join the
newly raised levies. The next few months were not without incident,
though the crisis was past. When the mutiny was finally suppressed, it
was clear that the frontier districts had proved to the British
government a source of strength rather than of danger.
During the early 20th century the so-called
Red Shirts led by
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan agitated through
non-violence for the rights of Pashtun areas.
[citation needed]
Indian independence.
The 15 August 1947 marked the end of the
British Raj. In July 1947, the
Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the
Indian Independence Act 1947 declaring that by 15 August 1947 it would divide
British India into the two new independent
dominions of
India and
Pakistan. The act also declared that the fate of the North West Frontier Province would be subject to the result of
referendum.
This was in accord with the June 3rd Plan proposal to have a referendum
to decide the future of the Northwest Frontier Province—to be voted on
by the same electoral college as for the Provincial Legislative Assembly
in 1946
.
The referendum was held on 2
July 1947
while polling began on 6 July 1947 and the referendum results were made
public on 20 July 1947. According to the official results, there were
572,798 registered voters out of which 289,244 (99.02%) votes were cast
in favor of Pakistan while only 2874 (0.98%) were cast in favor of
India.. According to an estimate total turnout for referendum was only
15% less as compared to that of 1946 elections.
Main points regarding the referendum were:
- (1) The electorate (eligible voters) was about 16% of the total
population equal to that of in 1946 i.e. out of the population of 3.5
million, only 572,799 people were Registered voters. Some have argued
that a segment of the population was barred from voting but as compared
to the 1946 elections, exercised votes were only 15% less in number.
- (2) There was no option in the polls to vote to become an sovereign
state independent of both India and Pakistan. Because of this, the
plebiscite was boycotted by Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his Khudai Khidmatgars along with other nationalistic and pro-India Pakhtuns.
- (3) In the referendum 50% (292,118) of the eligible voters voted which was only 15% less than what was in 1946 elections.
- (4) There was less than one month between the setting of the referendum and the date of the vote.
- (5) As compared to 1946 elections where one person could vote twice, people in 1947 referendum were allowed to vote only once.
For some individuals rigging and low voter turnout was a concern in
the referendum but the voters that cast a vote were only 15%
less(i.e.292,118 voters) than that of 1946 elections (i.e.375,989
voters). Also some argue that the princely states of NWFP and tribal
areas were barred from participating in the referendum but the number of
eligible voters was same as that of 46 elections .
Post-independence
Afghanistan's
loya jirga
of 1949 declared the Durand Line invalid, which led to border tensions
with Pakistan. Afghanistan's governments have periodically refused to
recognize Pakistan's inheritance of British treaties regarding the
region.
During the 1950s, Afghanistan supported the
Pushtunistan
Movement, a secessionist movement that failed to gain substantial
support amongst the tribes of the North-West Frontier Province.
Afghanistan's refusal to recognize the Durrand Line, and its subsequent
support for the Pashtunistan Movement has been cited as the main cause
of tensions between the two countries that have existed since Pakistan's
independence.
