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63-544: Soil conditions near Shkin Naryab are marginal and only allow for limited agricultural seasonal use. Aside from small apple orchards/farms there is only minimal economic activity. The closest competent health care can be found in Wana, Pakistan , and Urgun . Until recently there were no paved roads in this Barmal Valley region. However, with the construction of the nearby firebase , a permanent road from Urgun has made its way all

126-462: A stronghold of Buddhism , Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the site of the ancient region of Gandhara , including the ruins of the Gandharan capital of Pushkalavati (located near present day Charsadda ). The region's history is characterized by frequent invasions by various empires, largely due to its geographical proximity to the historically important Khyber Pass . Although it is colloquially known by

189-419: A Pandora's box, because of Pakistan's very tenuous polity. Now, on one side, there are identity issues and ethnic issues and provincial autonomy issues. The other side is religious issues and terrorism. It's a very explosive situation." Many alternative names were proposed for the province. Many of these alternatives were designed to avoid or balance the ethnic connotations of Pakhtunkhwa. The name Gandhāra

252-399: A Pashtun political party, Awami National Party based in the province demanded that the province name be changed to "Pakhtunkhwa". Their logic behind that demand was that Punjabi people , Sindhi people and Baloch people have their provinces named after their ethnicities but that is not the case for Pashtun people . Pakistan Muslim League (N) , the largest opposition party at the time

315-596: A constitutional amendment but wanted to name the province something other than which does not carry only the Pashtun identity in it as they argued that there were other minor communities living in the province especially the Hazarewals of the Hazara region who spoke Hindko thus the word Khyber was introduced with the name because it is the name of a major pass which connects Pakistan to Afghanistan. In early 2010,

378-637: A desperate resistance. Meanwhile, Peukelaotis (in Hashtnagar , 17 miles (27 km) north-west of Peshawar ) had submitted, and Nicanor, a Macedonian, was appointed satrap of the country west of the Indus. Mauryan rule began with Chandragupta Maurya displacing the Nanda Empire , establishing the Mauryan Empire. A while after, Alexander's general Seleucus had attempted to once again invade

441-794: A headquarters by the British forces in South Waziristan till the partition of India in 1947 . During their rule, the Pashtun tribes of Waziristan - part of the Karlanri Tribal Confederation - gave the British much headache. In fact, the British, known then as the 'foreigners' , had to deal with a full-fledged insurgency in Waziristan in the 1930s. At one point during the 1930s, the British had up to 18,000 troops in and around Waziristan, with Wanna being used as

504-527: A route to other neighbouring empires and was used by merchants on trade excursions. From 1500 BCE, Indo-Iranian peoples started to enter in the region from Central Asia after having passed the Khyber Pass. The region of Gandhara , which was primarily based in the area of modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa features prominently in the Rigveda ( c.  1500  – c.  1200 BCE ), as well as

567-571: A safe haven. 32°31′40″N 69°15′55″E  /  32.52778°N 69.26528°E  / 32.52778; 69.26528 Wana, Pakistan Wāṇa or Wanna ( Pashto : واڼه , Wāṇə [ˈwɑɳə] ; Urdu : وانا ) is the largest town in the South Waziristan District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan . It is the summer headquarters for the agency's administration, Tank located in

630-825: A variety of other names, the name "Khyber Pakhtunkhwa" was brought into effect for the North-West Frontier Province in April 2010, following the passing of the 18th Constitutional Amendment . On 24 May 2018, the National Assembly of Pakistan voted in favour of the 25th Constitutional Amendment , which merged the FATA as well as the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa subsequently approved

693-684: Is no evidence that all the kings who assumed the title Gondophares , which means "Holder of Glory", were even related. The Yuezhi nomads had driven the Sakas from the highlands of Central Asia , and were themselves forced southwards by the nomadic Xiongnu . One group, known as the Kushan, took the lead, and its chief, Kadphises I , seized vast territories extending south to the Kabul valley. His son Kadphises II conquered North-Western India, which he governed through his generals. His immediate successors were

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756-500: Is semantically non-descript and socially wrongful. It is non-descript because it merely indicates their geographical situation as a province of old "British India" [which no longer exists]. It is wrongful because it suppresses the social entity of these people. In fact, it suppresses that entity so completely that when composing the name "Pakistan" for our homelands, I had to call the North-West Frontier Province

819-496: Is the third-largest Pakistani province in terms of both its population and its economy , it is geographically the smallest. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's share of Pakistan's GDP has historically comprised 10.5%, amounting to over US$ 30 billion. The province is home to 16.9 percent of Pakistan's total population . The province is multiethnic, with the main ethnic groups being the Pashtuns , Hindkowans , Saraikis , and Chitralis . Once

882-622: The CIA 's Special Activities Division were killed while conducting an operation to kill/capture high level al-Qa'ida leaders. On 21 May 2004, these Officers were honored with Stars on the CIA Memorial Wall at their Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. "The bravery of these two men cannot be overstated," Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet told a gathering of several hundred Agency employees and family members of those killed in

945-522: The Hindko -speaking Hazara region of the province announced it might oppose the name change because of it "being on ethnic grounds" because of opposition by its provincial leadership. The name Pakhtunkhwa was mentioned for the first time in the United Nation's General Assembly by Pakistani President Asif Zardari on 26 September 2008. The Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party based in

1008-721: The Jhelum River . The last known Indo-Greek ruler was Theodamas , from the Bajaur area of Gandhara, mentioned on a 1st-century CE signet ring, bearing the Kharoṣṭhī inscription "Su Theodamasa" ( "Su" was the Greek transliteration of the Kushan royal title "Shau" (" Shah " or "King")). It is during this period that the fusion of Hellenistic and South Asian mythological, artistic and religious elements becomes most apparent, especially in

1071-593: The Kabul valley in Afghanistan, and northwards up to the Karakoram range. It was attested in the Rigveda , and it was one of the 16 Mahajanapadas of the second urbanisation . The region was a major centre for Greco-Buddhism under the Indo-Greeks and Gandharan Buddhism under later dynasties, including Indo-Scythians , Indo-Parthians and Kushans . Gandhara was also a central location for

1134-533: The Kashmir Siwalik Hills. After the battle of Peshawar, Mahmud of Ghazni had secured controlled over southern regions of Pakhtunkhwa. He also (1024 and 1025) raided the Pashtuns . His descendants reigned till 1179, when Muhammad of Ghor took Peshawar, making it part of his expanding Ghurid Empire . Following the invasion by the Ghurids, five unrelated heterogeneous dynasties ruled over

1197-469: The ANP demand but called for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to suggest another "non-controversial" name. PML (N) members noted that Sarhad was a good name for the province but, if a change was needed, then it should be named Khyber or Abasin. The NWFP chief minister, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, called for a referendum on the issue as a way of determining the name. These offers were rejected by the ANP leadership and

1260-622: The ANP withdrew from both the federal and provincial governments. The lack of support for a name change by the PML (N) was defended as opposition to the nationalistic politics being pursued by the ANP. In May 2008, to accommodate a demand by the people of NWFP who voted for the ANP, the PPP proposed that the name of the North-West Frontier Province be changed to Pakhtunkhwa, however the Muslim League Nawaz which had considerable support in

1323-497: The Afghan Province. Suggestions for new names came and went. Although some of the names were ethnically neutral, most proposals emphasised the province's Pashtun ethnic identity. The renaming issue was an emotional one which often crossed party lines and not all supporters of a renaming agreed on the name Pakhtunkhwa. By the late 20th century, President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq agreed with Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan to change

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1386-580: The Aspasians, from whom he took 40,000 prisoners and 230,000 oxen, Alexander crossed the Gouraios ( Panjkora ) and entered the territory of the Assakenoi and laid siege to Massaga, which he took by storm. Ora and Bazira (possibly Bazar) soon fell. The people of Bazira fled to the rock Aornos, but Alexander made Embolima (possibly Amb ) his base, and attacked the rock from there, which was captured after

1449-523: The CIA created Counter-Terrorism Pursuit Teams (CTPT) starting in 2001 which reached 3,000 soldiers by 2010. They were considered the "best Afghan fighting force" and, unlike the Afghan National Army , very well motivated. Firebase Lilley served as a nerve center for the covert war and a hub for these CTPT operations. These units had been considered highly effective in combat operations against

1512-753: The Delhi Sultanate sequentially: the Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290), the Khalji dynasty (1290–1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1414), the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451), and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). Meanwhile, the Pashtuns now appeared as a political factor. At the close of the fourteenth century they were firmly established in their present-day demographics south of Kohat, and in 1451 Bahlol Lodi's accession to

1575-707: The Greco-Bactrians out of Gandhara and beyond the Hindu Kush , becoming king shortly after his victory. His empire survived him in a fragmented manner until the last independent Greek king, Strato II , disappeared around 10 CE. Around 125 BCE, the Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles , son of Eucratides, fled from the Yuezhi invasion of Bactria and relocated to Gandhara, pushing the Indo-Greeks east of

1638-612: The Indo-Greeks and ruled a kingdom that stretched from Gandhara to Mathura . The first Indo-Scythian king Maues established Saka hegemony by conquering Indo-Greek territories. The power of the Saka rulers declined after the defeat to Chandragupta II of the Gupta Empire in the 4th century. The Indo-Parthian Kingdom was ruled by the Gondopharid dynasty, named after its first ruler Gondophares . For most of their history,

1701-701: The Mughal emperor. Yusufzai tribes rose against Mughals during the Yusufzai Revolt of 1667, and engaged in pitched-battles with Mughal battalions in Peshawar and Attock . Afridi tribes resisted Aurangzeb rule during the Afridi Revolt of the 1670s. The Afridis massacred a Mughal battalion in the Khyber Pass in 1672 and shut the pass to lucrative trade routes. Following another massacre in

1764-631: The Taliban and al-Qa'ida forces and were also used to engage with the tribes in areas with no other official government presence. This covert war also included a large CIA expansion into the Federally Administered Tribal Area region of Pakistan to target senior al-Qa'ida and Taliban leadership. The CTPT units were considered key to any exit strategy for the U.S. government to leave Afghanistan, while still being able to deny al-Qa'ida and other transnational extremists groups

1827-537: The Zoroastrian Avesta , which mentions it as Vaēkərəta , the sixth most beautiful place on earth created by Ahura Mazda . It was one of the 16 Mahajanapadas of Vedic era . It was the centre of Vedic and later forms of Hinduism . Gandhara was frequently mentioned in Vedic epics, including Rig Veda , Ramayana and Mahabharata . It was the home of Gandhari , the princess of Gandhara Kingdom . In

1890-540: The bill on 28 May 2018; it was signed into law on 31 May by erstwhile Pakistani president Mamnoon Hussain , which officially completed the administrative merger process. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa means the " Khyber side of the land of the Pashtuns , " where the word Pakhtunkhwa means " Land of the Pashtuns ", while according to some scholars, it refers to "Pashtun culture and society". The province has had various names throughout history. Other names used or proposed for

1953-500: The border. When there's trouble, it usually comes from that direction. On August 31, 2003, Army SPC Chad C. Fuller, 24, of Potsdam, NY., and Army PFC Adam L. Thomas, 21, of Palos Hills, Illinois were killed in a gun battle with Taliban forces. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. On October 25, 2003, paramilitary officers Christopher Mueller and William "Chief" Carlson from

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2016-511: The country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the fourth largest province of Pakistan by land area and the third-largest province by population. It is bordered by Balochistan to the south; Punjab , Islamabad Capital Territory , and Azad Kashmir to the east; and Gilgit-Baltistan to the north and northeast. It shares an international border with Afghanistan to the west. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a varied geography of rugged mountain ranges , valleys, rolling foothills, and dense agricultural farms. While it

2079-577: The dominions of the Kushan kings shrank. The Turk Shahis ruled Gandhara until 870, when they were overthrown by the Hindu Shahis . The Hindu Shahis are believed to belong to the Uḍi/Oḍi tribe, namely the people of Oddiyana (modern Swat) in Gandhara, although they are also variously stated to be Brāhmāns or Kshātriyas. The first king Kallar had moved the capital into Udabandhapura from Kabul, in

2142-590: The empire. However, it was Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka , who converted to Buddhism and made it the official state religion in Gandhara and also Pakhli , the modern Hazara, as evidenced by rock-inscriptions at Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra . After Ashoka's death the Mauryan empire fell to pieces, just as in the west the Seleucid power was waning. The Indo-Greek king Menander I (reigned 155–130 BCE) drove

2205-586: The fabled Hindu kings : Kanishka, Huvishka, and Vasushka or Vasudeva, of whom the first reigned over a territory which extended as far east as Benares, far south as Malwa, and also including Bactria and the Kabul valley. Their dates are still a matter of dispute, but it is beyond question that they reigned early in the Christian era. To this period may be ascribed the fine statues and bas-reliefs found in Gandhara and Udyana. Under Huvishka's successor, Vasushka ,

2268-744: The forward headquarters and airbase. During 1989, the city underwent a striking increase in Malaria with a village Azam Warsak suffering the most. Wanna has been involved in the War on Terror due to the Al-Qaeda members affiliated with the Taliban -aligned Ahmadzai Waziris of the Wanna Plain. The Pakistan Armed forces have been conducted several armed operations against these Al-Qaeda members since August 2003 off and on with limited success. Perhaps

2331-678: The founder of the Mughal Empire, invaded the region in 1505 CE via the Khyber Pass . The Mughal Empire noted the importance of the region as a weak point in their empire's defences, and determined to hold Peshawar and Kabul at all cost against any threats from the Uzbek Shaybanids . He was forced to retreat westwards to Kabul but returned to defeat the Lodis in July 1526, when he captured Peshawar from Daulat Khan Lodi , though

2394-502: The leading Gondopharid kings held Taxila (in the present Punjab province of Pakistan ) as their residence, but during their last few years of existence the capital shifted between Kabul and Peshawar . These kings have traditionally been referred to as Indo-Parthians, as their coinage was often inspired by the Arsacid dynasty, but they probably belonged to a wider groups of Iranic tribes who lived east of Parthia proper, and there

2457-672: The line of duty. "Chris and Chief put the lives of others ahead of their own. That is heroism defined." Mueller, a former US Navy SEAL and Carlson, a former Army Special Forces soldier, Delta Force operator, and member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, died while on a covert operation near Shkin, Afghanistan. Both officers saved the lives of others, including Afghan soldiers, during the engagement with al-Qa'ida forces. As described in Bob Woodward 's book Obama's Wars ,

2520-445: The modern village of Hund for its new capital. At its zenith, the kingdom stretched over the Kabul Valley , Gandhara and western Punjab under Jayapala . Jayapala saw a danger in the consolidation of the Ghaznavids and invaded their capital city of Ghazni both in the reign of Sebuktigin and in that of his son Mahmud , which initiated the Muslim Ghaznavid and Hindu Shahi struggles. Sebuk Tigin, however, defeated him, and he

2583-426: The name to Pashtunistan but he contended that the term Pashtunistan had become controversial and was being politicized by Afghanistan. Ghaffar Khan suggested Pakhtunkhwa, but Zia-ul-Haq asked Ghaffar Khan to suggest an alternative. The name Pakhtunkhwa was approved by the democratically elected constitutional assembly of the province in 1997 by majority vote. However, the PML (N) parliamentary party of NWFP rejected

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2646-404: The neighbouring Tank District being the winter headquarters. Wanna is also one of the three subdivisions of South Waziristan along with Ladha and Sarwakai . The subdivision of Wanna is further divided into three tehsils: Wanna, Barmal, and Toi Khwla. During the British Empire , beginning in the late 19th century, the British established a cantonment on the Wanna Plain which was used as

2709-541: The nerve center of the movement. On the 10th of April, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police fired at unarmed protesters, leaving 7 dead and dozens injured. Allegedly, the firing was ordered by the coalition government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, led by the Awami National Party . This is one of the earliest incidents of police brutality in Pakistan in recent years, occurring before the Model Town Lahore incident , whose FIR has not been registered still today. Arif Nizami, former editor of The Nation , said, "This has actually opened

2772-414: The new name should be Hazara-Pakhtunkhwa (in reference to the Hazara region where Hindko -speakers are dominant as compared to the Pashto-speakers elsewhere in the province), and others said the name should not be changed since the people were accustomed to North-West Frontier Province. During the times of Indus Valley civilisation (3300 BCE – 1700 BCE) the Khyber Pass through Hindu Kush provided

2835-457: The powerful Ghaznavid forces, near present-day Peshawar . After the Battle of Peshawar , he died because of regretting as his subjects brought disaster and disgrace to the Shahi dynasty. Jayapala was succeeded by his son Anandapala , who along with other succeeding generations of the Shahiya dynasty took part in various unsuccessful campaigns against the advancing Ghaznvids but were unsuccessful. The Hindu rulers eventually exiled themselves to

2898-404: The process of renaming proceeded and the Pakistani Senate confirmed the name change to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the 18th amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan with a unanimous 90 votes on 15 April 2010. The name change of the province was met with strong opposition from the people of Hazara region and protests erupted in the region with wheel and shutter jam strikes. Abbottabad became

2961-442: The province demanded that the province name be changed to "Pakhtunkhwa". Their logic behind that demand was that Punjabi people , Sindhi people and Baloch people have their provinces named after their ethnicities but that is not the case for Pashtun people . Pakistan Muslim League (N) , the largest opposition party at the time was ready to change the province's name by supporting the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and ANP, in

3024-450: The province include Gandhara , Afghania , Pashtunistan , Pathanistan , Sarhad , Abaseen , Khyber , or a combination of names, such as Hazara-Pakhtunkhwa . When the British established it as a province, they called it "North West Frontier Province" (abbreviated as NWFP) until 2010 due to its relative location being in the northwest of the British Indian Empire . After the creation of Pakistan, Pakistan continued with this name but

3087-521: The province's Urdu name given to it by the Mughals, which means "frontier". For most of the history of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), there were efforts to change its name. The name Afghania was proposed first by the founding leaders of the Muslim League in 1933 and was at least partly chosen to represent the first "a" in "P a kistan". The need for a change was explained by the man who named Pakistan in his " Now or Never " pamphlet, Choudhary Rahmat Ali Khan, as: "North-West Frontier Province"

3150-422: The region of Gandhara. Local Greek rulers still exercised a feeble and precarious power along the borderland, but the last vestige of the Greco-Indian rulers were finished by a people known to the old Chinese as the Yeuh-Chi. The Indo-Scythians were descended from the Sakas (Scythians) who migrated from Central Asia into South Asia from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century BCE. They displaced

3213-416: The region was never considered to be fully subjugated to the Mughals. Under the reign of Babar's son, Humayun , a direct Mughal rule was briefly challenged with the rise of the Pashtun Emperor, Sher Shah Suri , who began construction of the famous Grand Trunk Road – which links Kabul, Afghanistan with Chittagong , Bangladesh over 2000 miles to the east. Later, local rulers once again pledged loyalty to

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3276-455: The spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and East Asia. Gāndhārī , an Indo-Aryan language written in Kharosthi script , acted as lingua franca of the region. Famed for its unique Gandharan style of art which is influenced by the classical Hellenistic styles, Gandhara attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century CE under the Kushan Empire , who had their capital at Peshawar ( Puruṣapura ). Some Hazara residents said that

3339-448: The spring of 327 BC Alexander the Great crossed the Hindu Kush and advanced to Nicaea , where Omphis, king of Taxila and other chiefs joined him. Alexander then dispatched part of his force through the valley of the Kabul River, while he himself advanced into Bajaur and Swat with his light troops. Craterus was ordered to fortify and repopulate Arigaion , probably in Bajaur, which its inhabitants had burnt and deserted. Having defeated

3402-416: The subcontinent from the Khyber pass hoping to take lands that Alexander had conquered, but never fully absorbed into this empire. Seleucus was defeated and the lands of Aria, Arachosia, Gandhara, and Gedrosia were ceded to the Mauryans in exchange for a matrimonial alliance and 500 elephants. With the defeat of the Greeks, the land was once more under Hindu rule. Chandragupta's son Bindusara further expanded

3465-404: The surroundings of Wanna. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ( /ˌkaɪbər pəkˈtuːŋkwə/ ; Pashto : خېبر پښتونخوا [ˈxebaɾ paxtunˈxwɑ] ; Urdu : خیبر پختونخوا , pronounced [ˈxɛːbəɾ pəxˈtuːnxʷɑː] ; abbr. KP or KPK ), formerly known as North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a province of Pakistan . Located in the northwestern region of

3528-431: The throne of Delhi gave them a dominant position in Northern India . Yusufzai tribes from the Kabul and Jalalabad valleys began migrating to the Valley of Peshawar beginning in the 15th century, and displaced the Swatis of the Bhittani confederation and Dilazak Pashtun tribes across the Indus River to Hazara Division . Mughal suzerainty over the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region was partially established after Babar,

3591-434: The town's most violent incident in the War on Terror was the Battle of Wanna which took place in March 2004 and included fighters from the Pakistani Army against Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. More than 100 armed personnel were killed during the week of the fighting. Inhabitants of Wanna are Muslim Pashtuns , primarily Ahmedzai Waziris from the Wazir tribe but other Pashtun tribes such as Mahsud and Bettani also live in

3654-405: The way to Barmal. The estimated elementary-level literacy rate for males in the Barmal Valley is 60% for males and 10-20% for females. It is an impoverished region even by Afghan standards. Shkin Firebase was named after this village and was renamed Firebase Lilley to honor Master Sgt. Arthur L. Lilley, a U.S. Special Forces soldier who was killed in a gunfire exchange there in 2007. The base

3717-449: Was established in 2002. It was located six kilometers from the Pakistani border. It was once considered the most dangerous location in Afghanistan. A 2003 article in Time magazine described the base: The U.S. firebase looks like a Wild West cavalry fort, ringed with coils of razor wire. A U.S. flag ripples above the 3-ft.-thick mud walls, and in the watchtower a guard scans the expanse of forested ridges, rising to 9,000 ft., that mark

3780-405: Was forced to pay an indemnity. Jayapala defaulted on the payment and took to the battlefield once more. Jayapala however, lost control of the entire region between the Kabul Valley and Indus River . In the year 1001, soon after Sultan Mahmud came to power and was occupied with the Qarakhanids north of the Hindu Kush , Jaipal attacked Ghazni once more and upon suffering yet another defeat by

3843-419: Was introduced with the name because it is the name of a major pass which connects Pakistan to Afghanistan. For over a hundred years after its founding as a province of British Raj in 1901, it was known as the North-West Frontier Province (abbreviated as NWFP) until 2010 due to its relative location being in the northwest of the nation. Unofficially, it was known as Sarhad ( Urdu : سرحد ), derived from

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3906-405: Was proposed by Pakistan Muslim League (N) , as a neutral name for the province. Gandhara was an ancient Indo-Aryan civilization centered in the present-day province. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley and Swat valley , though the cultural influence of "Greater Gandhara" extended across the Indus river to the Taxila region in Potohar Plateau and westwards into

3969-404: Was ready to change the province's name by supporting the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and ANP, in a constitutional amendment but wanted to name the province something other than which does not carry only the Pashtun identity in it as they argued that there were other minor communities living in the province especially the Hazarewals of the Hazara region who spoke Hindko thus the word Khyber

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