Azakhel Payan ( ps, اضاخيل پايان) is a village of Nowshera Tehsil in northeastern Pakistan. Its original name (with
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
s) is . The village houses an Afghan refugee camp.
Azakhel Payan lies along the
Grand Trunk Road
The Grand Trunk Road (formerly known as Uttarapath, Sarak-e-Azam, Shah Rah-e-Azam, Badshahi Sarak, and Long Walk) is one of Asia's oldest and longest major roads. For at least 2,500 years it has linked Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent. ...
Nowshera District
Nowshera District ( ps, نوښار ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Peshawar Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. The capital and district headquarter is Nowshera city.
Overview and history
Nowshera was a tehsil (sub di ...
. The majority of the village population works in agriculture. Villagers mainly farm potatoes, sugar cane, wheat, corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
Etymology
The word ''Azakhel Payan'' is a linguistic compound consisting of three words. ''Aza'' is probably the name of its founder. The word ''khel'' might be derived from the
Avestan
Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scrip ...
word , meaning "uncountable" or "over-populated". ''Khel'' is a cognate of the
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
word , meaning "lots" or "too much".
By convention, the word ''khel'' is placed after the name of a common ancestor or leader when naming a village. ''Khel'' is usually part of a single village's name, but it may also be used for a larger settlement. The last part of the village's name, ''Payan'', means "lower" in Persian or
Azakhel Payan is bordered by the Cherat Mountains to the south and the Kabil River to the north. The distance between Kabil River and the Grand Trunk Road is about . The village of Azakhel Bala lies just west of Azakhel Payan, and the town of
Pir Piai
Pir-piai or Pirpiai is a town in the District of Nowshera in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Its population is around 35,000.
Pirpiai has a high literacy rate of 92%, compared with Pakistan's average literacy rate of 55%. The village is on GT Road ...
is just east.
The area between the Kabil River and the Grand Trunk Road is called "Bela." It served as a training camp for Afghan
mujaheddin
''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...
during the Soviet-Afghan war. This area was established as a refugee camp for the Afghan immigrants in during the reign of
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...
.
The
parent material
Parent material is the underlying geological material (generally bedrock or a superficial or drift deposit) in which soil horizons form. Soils typically inherit a great deal of structure and minerals from their parent material, and, as such, are ...
in and surrounding Azakhel Payan is
siltstone
Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...
.
Azakhel Park
The Nowshera District government has leased 83 acres of agricultural land in Azakhel Payan to the University of Peshawar's Centre of Plant Biodiversity (CPB). This area is called Azakhel Park. The University of Peshawar plans to develop research laboratories, botanical nurseries, greenhouses, an herbarium, a museum, a conference hall, lecture theaters, a library, and areas for teaching students in Azakhel Park.