Sadda ( ps, سده ''Sada'') is a city in

Kurram District Kurram District ( ps, کرم ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.The name Kurram comes from the river Kuramá ( ps, کورمه) in Pashto which itself derives from the Sanskrit name K ...

in the

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, ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. Located on the

Kurram River The Kurrama River ( ps, د کورمې سيند), or Kurram River, originates from watershed of Spin Ghar in the Paktia Province of Afghanistan and the Kurram District of Pakistan, flows through North Waziristan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, passing t ...

, it is a big trade market for the people of

Lower Kurram Lower Kurram Tehsil is a subdivision located in Kurram District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The population is 136,719 according to the 2017 census. History In March 2017, two people were killed in a US drone strike in the Sara Khwa area o ...

and

Central Kurram Central Kurram Tehsil is a subdivision located in Kurram District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The population is 229,356 according to the 2017 census. History Central Kurram was previously known as F.R. Kurram until it was renamed in 2004. ...

. The main tribe living in Sadda is the

Bangash The Bangash, Bungish or Bangakh ( ps, بنګښ) are a tribe of Pashtuns, inhabiting their traditional homeland, historically known as Bangash district, which stretches from Kohat to Tall and Spīn Ghar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. They als ...

. Sadda is located about southeast of Parachinar. The nearest main city on the Afghan side of the border is

Khost Khōst ( ps, خوست) is the capital of Khost Province in Afghanistan. It is the largest city in the southeastern part of the country, and also the largest in the region of Loya Paktia. To the south and east of Khost lie Waziristan and Kurram ...

, which is located about to the southwest of Sadda.

Etymology

Sadda or

Sadeh ) , observedby = Canada (by Iranian Canadians) USA (by Iranian Americans) , ends = , week_ordinal = , weekday = , month = January , date2008 = , date2009 = , date2010 = , date2011 = , date2012 ...

literary means "hundred", and is the name of an ancient Iranian

winter festival A winter festival, winter carnival, snow festival, or frost fair is an outdoor cold weather celebration that occurs in wintertime. Winter festivals are popular in D climates (see Köppen climate classification) where winter is particularly long ...

, traditionally celebrated by kindling fires. The festival falls 40 days after the

winter solstice The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter ...

, and 50 days before the

March equinox The March equinox or northward equinox is the equinox on the Earth when the subsolar point appears to leave the Southern Hemisphere and cross the celestial equator, heading northward as seen from Earth. The March equinox is known as the ve ...

Nowruz Nowruz ( fa, نوروز, ; ), zh, 诺鲁孜节, ug, نەۋروز, ka, ნოვრუზ, ku, Newroz, he, נורוז, kk, Наурыз, ky, Нооруз, mn, Наурыз, ur, نوروز, tg, Наврӯз, tr, Nevruz, tk, Nowruz, ...

, i.e. on or around 30 January.

Demographics

Sadda is inhabited by

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...

who speak

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 langua ...

. The main Pashtun tribes are the

and

Orakzai The Orakzai are a Pashtun tribe native to the Orakzai Agency and parts of Kurram Agency located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. They speak the language Pashto. Location The Orakzai belong to the Tirah valley located in FATA or ...

. Other large tribes are the Alisherzai,

Mamozai Mamuzai is a Pashtun tribe of Orakzai District in Pakistan. Several Mamuzai live in Kohat, Peshawar, Islamabad, and in other areas in Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a countr ...

, and

Mangal Mangal Rajgan (or Manghal, Mangla) is a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name *Mangal (singer), Afghan singer *Mangal Bagh (born 1973), Pakistani militant leader *Mangal Dhillon, Indian actor ...

. Being a trading point, it bustles with business activity attracting customers and traders from all over Kurram District. It is now a diverse multi-tribe city. During the Taliban insurgency, Sadda was home to many Taliban leaders before the Pakistan Army took control of the city. Sadda is a very fast-growing city, which doubled its population between 1998 and 2017. It is the fourth-largest city in

Kohat Division Kohat Division is one of seven divisions in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It consists of five districts: Hangu, Karak, Kohat, Kurram, and Orakzai. According to the 2017 Pakistani Census, the division had a population of 3,211,458, ...

and the 40th largest city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It first was notified and recognized as an urban area between the 1981 and 1998 censuses of Pakistan.

References

Populated places in Kurram District {{FATA-geo-stub

Etymology

Demographics

See also

References