* Welcome!
Parachinar Kurram Agency.

* Aim of creating a Blog
“Parachinar Kurram Agency” is a voluntary, non-commercial/non-profit initiative to explore & promote the natural beauty of Parachinar.

Major aim of creating this blog is to preserve the visual history of the people, traditions, social, cultural & religious gatherings, development, heritage & promotion of tourism sector of Parachinar through pictures found in different collections/archives and histrorical albums with textual/video/audio narratives.

*PARACHINAR:
Parachinar is the capital of Kurram Agency, FATA of Pakistan. It is about 290 kms west of the Islamabad & situated on a neck of Pakistani territory south of Peshawar,that juts into Paktia & Nangarhar & the closest point to Kabul in Afghanistan.

Tucked away between soaring snowy-peaks and deep gorges in the fragile north-western region of Pakistan is the tiny town of PARACHINAR.

Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, one of the more charismatic leaders in the history of this troubled nation Pakistan, is said to have called it Pakistan’s own “Switzerland”.

Humbled by towering snow-tipped mountains and covered by endless fruit orchards, Parachinar’s natural charm is breathtaking.

*History:
The name Parachinar comes from a big Chinar tree (Maple tree) at a place now encompassed by the headquarter offices of Kurram Agency.

Also at the Kurram Agency, there is a tribe known as the Para Chamkani, which used to convene their meetings under this Chinar tree to resolve their social matters. So that's how this city named as Parachinar.

The old name of Parachinar is Tutki, when Kurram was a part of Afghanistan. The inhabitants of Tutki are called Tutkiwal, the Afghan people call it Tutki.

Parachinar originated as a summer residence for nomadic tribes who wintered their livestock at lower altitudes, and the district had originally been a summer residence for Moghal emperors from Delhi.

The Parachinar region was part of Afghanistan before the Second Afghan War of 1878-79, but was not firmly annexed by the British due to resistance from local tribes until 1892.

During the colonial era and 1947, Parachinar became a hill station for people from Peshawar; as it is relatively cool in the summer and very easy to reach from the plains despite its high altitude since there are no steep ascents on the route from Peshawar.

Because of its proximity to the border of Afghanistan, in recent years, the economy of Parachinar has been adversely affected, with tourism in steep decline.

Bangash History

The Bangash originally lived between the Gardez region of modern-day Afghanistan and Kurram Valley of present Pakistan, where they were still living as of theGhaznavids period (975 to 1187).^[1] Later on, they came into conflict with the Ghilzais, and were ousted from their homeland eastwards across the Paywar Pass to the upper Kurram Basin(now in Pakistan), located on the eastern slopes of the Spin Ghar range. The Bangash allied with the Khattaks who were also moving to the same area and pushed the Orakzai of the area southeastwards. In the 16th century, the whole habitat of the Bangash was called Bangash District and was ruled by the Khan of Hangu (Mardu Khan(1540 A.D) 1st khan of the Hangu) who were the chiefs of Bangash tribe. However, in the 18th century, the Bangash ceded most of the upper Kurram Basin to the Turi tribe, though the Bangash sill occupy some villages there, in particular in the Shalozan area near the Pakistan–Afghanistan border.^[1] This incorporation, which is never clearly formulated in terms of filiation or even of adoption, may have originated in a military alliance between the Bangaṧ and Ḵaṭak (q.v.) in the 9th/15th century."^[1]

Nawab Ali Mohammed KhanBangash, first Nawab of Rampur, ca 1730, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

The Mughal Emperor Babur mentioned a population of approximately 5,600 Bangash located in the Kurram agency, which was formerly divided into Bangash-i-Bala and Bangash Payan, "Upper and Lower Bangash", and lists Bangash as one of the fourteen provinces then dependent on Kabul. Babur wished to conquer these provinces, but was unable to conquer the territory bounded on the north by the Spin Ghar down as far as Bannu, where Bangash, Turis, and Wazirs live, as is clear from his comments: "Bangash is another tuman [of Kabul]. The area round about is full of highway robbers such as theKhogyani, Khirilchi, Turi and Landar. Since it is isolated they do not pay the desired revenue. As greater tasks such as the conquest of Kandahar, Balkh, Badakhshan and Hindustan occupied me, there has been no opportunity to subjugate the Bangash".^[6] However, in 1505 Babur raided and plundered the district of the Bangash.^[7]

They inhabited the Miranzai valley (Hangu), the Kohat defile in the North-West Frontier Province (1901–1955), and the valley of Kurram river in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Kohat Gazetteer of 1883–84 records

"The Orakzai tribes are said to have been converted by the Tirah Syeds about the beginning of the present century. The Bangash of Samizai were probably converted a little earlier."^[8]

The three main divisions of the Bangash clan are the Miranzai, Baizais and Samilzai.