Shangla District ( ps, شانګله ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

in Malakand Division of

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

, Pakistan. The district's headquarter is located at Alpuri, while the largest city and commercial center is Besham. The district was established in 1995, having previously been a subdivision of

Swat District Swat District (, ps, سوات ولسوالۍ, ) is a district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. With a population of 2,309,570 per the 2017 national census, Swat is the 15th-largest district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pro ...

. The total area of the district is 1,586 square kilometers. Shangla comprises three subdivisions, Alpuri, Puran and Besham tehsils.

Location

The district is bounded in the north by Kohistan District, in the east by Battagram District and Torghar District, in the west by

, and in the south by Buner District.

History

There are relics of the ancient Greek period at Pirsar, Chakesar and Daut. it is believed that

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

camped at Pirsar for a few days. There are also relics of the Hindu Shahi in Olandar-Ajmair. A number of

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in ...

sculptures also are also found in district Shangla which indicate that Shangla was also the previous part of Buddhist civilization.

Geography

Shangla district consists of small valleys and is situated between the hillocks and surrounded by high mountains full of forests comprising

Pindrow Fir ''Abies pindrow'', the pindrow fir or west Himalayan fir, is a fir native to the western Himalaya and adjacent mountains, from northeast Afghanistan east through northern Pakistan and India to central Nepal. Description It is a large evergre ...

Morinda Spruce ''Picea smithiana'' is a species of evergreen tree in the family Pinaceae family It is referred to by the common names morinda spruce and West Himalayan spruce, and is a spruce native to the western Himalaya and adjacent mountains, from north ...

, Blue Pine (Kail), Chir Pine and

Deodar Cedar ''Cedrus deodara'', the deodar cedar, Himalayan cedar, or deodar, is a species of cedar native to the Himalayas. Description It is a large evergreen coniferous tree reaching tall, exceptionally with a trunk up to in diameter. It has a conic ...

trees. The average elevation of the district is 2000 to 3000 meters above sea level. The highest point (3,440 m) is near Kuz Ganrshal in the north of the district.

Demographics

At the time of the 2017 census the district had a population of 759,609, of which 386,082 were males and 373,508 females. The entire population was rural. The literacy rate was 33.13% - the male literacy rate was 51.67% while the female literacy rate was 14.50%. 230 people in the district were from religious minorities.

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languag ...

was the predominant language, spoken by 96.76% of the population. The district was hit by the

2015 Hindu Kush earthquake The October 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake was a magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck South Asia on 26 October 2015, at 13:39 AFT (14:09 PKT; 14:39 IST; 09:09 UTC) with the epicenter 45 km north of Kuran wa Munjan, Afghanistan, at a depth ...

in which more than 18 people killed. The main tribe of Shangla is

Yusufzai The Yusufzai or Yousafzai ( ps, یوسفزی, ), also referred to as the Esapzai (, ) are one of the largest tribes of ethnic Pashtuns. They are natively based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, to which they migrated to from Suliman mountains dur ...

that contribute more than half of the district population, the dense and well populated area of Shangla is Alpuri tehsil(gwarband) that contribute more than 253000+ of district population, Shangla is one of the unique districts of Pakistan that contains more than 80% of forest land. The youngest noble laurate

Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai ( ur, , , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997), is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Awarded when she was 17, she is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and the second Pa ...

's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was born in Shangla, however, she herself was born in Mingora, Swat.

Education

In November 2022, the Chief Minister of

, Mahmood Khan, inaugurated University of Shangla. The university was earlier a campus of University of Swat.

National and provincial assembly

This district is represented by one elected MNA (Member of National Assembly) in Pakistan National Assembly. Its constituency is NA-31.

Since 2002: NA-10 (Shangla)

Provincial Assembly

References

Bibliography

* {{Coord missing, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa History of Pakistan