Tank District ( ps, ټانک ولسوالۍ, ur, '; skr, ') 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 counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
in
Dera Ismail Khan Division
Dera Ismail Khan Division is an administrative division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. It is the southernmost division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Location
Dera Ismail Khan Division borders Bannu Division (also Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) in t ...
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, ...
province in
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. The city of
Tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
is the capital of the district, which consists of Union Council City I and Union Council City II. There are sixteen Union councils of district Tank. Until 1992 Tank was a tehsil within
Dera Ismail Khan District
Dera Ismail Khan District ( ps, ډېره اسماعیل خان ولسوالي, bal, ڈیرہ عِسمائیل خان, ur, , skr, ; often abbreviated as D.I. Khan) is a district in Dera Ismail Khan Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in P ...
.
Tank is bounded by the districts of
Lakki Marwat
Lakki Marwat or Lakki (Urdu and ps, ) is the headquarters of Lakki Marwat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Lakki Marwat has become one of the fastest growing cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Lakki Marwat is also the 20th mos ...
to the northeast,
Dera Ismail Khan
Dera Ismail Khan (; bal, , Urdu and skr, , ps, ډېره اسماعيل خان), abbreviated as D.I. Khan, is a city and capital of Dera Ismail Khan District, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the 37th largest city of Pakistan ...
to the east and southeast,
FR Tank to the north and the
South Waziristan Agency
South Waziristan District ( ps, سويلي وزیرستان ولسوالۍ, ur, ) was a district in Dera Ismail Khan Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before splitting in to Lower South Waziristan District and Upper South Waziristan District and t ...
to the west. The climate in Tank reaches 110–120 °F. However, in the cold, harsh winters in the mountains to the west, people come to Tank to enjoy a pleasant stay and then return during the summer.
History
Macedonian flight
At the
Battle of the Hydaspes
The Battle of the Hydaspes was fought between Alexander the Great and king Porus in 326 BC. It took place on the banks of the Jhelum River (known to the ancient Greeks as Hydaspes) in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent (modern-day Pu ...
(now the
Beas River
The Beas River (Sanskrit: ; Hyphasis in Ancient Greek) is a river in north India. The river rises in the Himalayas in central Himachal Pradesh, India, and flows for some to the Sutlej River in the Indian state of Punjab. Its total length is ...
), fought between
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
's army and the Indian king
Purushotthama
Purushottama ( sa, पुरुषोत्तम, from पुरुष, ''purusha'' "spirit" or "male" and उत्तम, ''uttama'', "highest") is an epithet of the Hindu preserver deity, Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, Vishnu is the sour ...
(better known as Porus), the
Macedon
Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by ...
ian army refused to go any further. It is said that Alexander's army's was at risk of being trapped, or was faced by an enemy army too big to defeat, and had to retreat southwards through the
Makran
Makran ( fa, مكران), mentioned in some sources as Mecran and Mokrān, is the coastal region of Baluchistan. It is a semi-desert coastal strip in Balochistan, in Pakistan and Iran, along the coast of the Gulf of Oman. It extends westwards, ...
Desert.
Arrival of Islam
The Islam came in the Tank region in eighth century A.D. when
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
general
Muhammad Bin Qasim had attacked on the Multan and nearby areas. The tribe known as
Arain
Arain (also known as Raeen) are a large Punjabi agricultural tribe with strong political identity and organisation, found mainly in the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh with a small population in parts of Indian Punjab, Uttar Pradesh ...
in Tank District is the generation of those Arab soldiers who came towards Multan with Muhammad Bin Qasim.
Modern history
Finally, the Sikhs from the south overran the local tribes. They annexed the land in 1838. Somewhere in the midst of this turmoil, the British were assembling against the Pashtuns and the
First British-Afghan War commenced. The British took over in 1848. The British regiments weren't able to occupy the entire territory and remained in camps at the foothills of the mountains, while the harsh and dangerous upland terrain remained unexplored.
: "...even the shadows of the hills were hazardous."
The eastern border of the Kingdom of
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
was undefined until 1893 when the Durand Line was demarcated. At that moment, the line was used to intentionally separate the fierce Pushtun tribes from the tame. Under the same agreement, the tribes of
Waziristan
Waziristan (Pashto and ur, , "land of the Wazir") is a mountainous region covering the former FATA agencies of North Waziristan and South Waziristan which are now districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Waziristan covers some . ...
were clearly designated as being under the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
rule.
The British negotiated with the tribes through their agents in the border towns and Tank was a centre of negotiation with the Mahsud tribe – For the Britishers the Mahsud tribe was the most difficult to control, and in 1860 when the Mullah Shaleem kaka machi khel Mahsuds lushker attacked the British with a 3000 strong army the British were forced to penetrate into the territory of Tank to control them.
In January 1899,
Lord Curzon
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), styled Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and then Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman ...
was appointed
Viceroy of India
The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...
. Reaching India shortly after the suppression of the frontier risings of 1897–98, he paid special attention to the independent tribes of the north-west frontier and inaugurated a new province called the
North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), and pursued a policy of forceful control mingled with conciliation. The only major armed outbreak on this frontier during the period of his administration was the
Mahsud Waziri campaign of 1901.
Post-independence
After Independence Tank district became part of Pakistan. In 2018 the
Frontier Region Tank
Tank Subdivision formerly Frontier Region Tank is a subdivision in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The region is named after Tank District which lies to the south-east and also borders South Waziristan to the north, south and west and ...
was formally merged with Tank district.
Administration
The district contains two
Tehsils
A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...
- Tank and Jandola. And is represented in the
Provincial Assembly
Provincial may refer to:
Government & Administration
* Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country
* Provincial city (disambiguation)
* Provincial minister (disambiguation)
* Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...
by one elected MPA, who represents the PF-69 (Tank-1) constituency.
Constituencies and MPAs – Website of the Provincial Assembly of the NWFP
Tehsils
# Tank Tehsil
Tank ( ur, ) is a tehsil located in Tank District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Geography
Tank Tehsil has an area of 1,679 km2.
Adjacent tehsils
*Frontier Region Tank, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (north)
*Lakki Marwat Tehsil, Lakki ...
# Jandola Tehsil (formerly Frontier Region Tank
Tank Subdivision formerly Frontier Region Tank is a subdivision in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The region is named after Tank District which lies to the south-east and also borders South Waziristan to the north, south and west and ...
)
Demographics
At the time of the 2017 census the district had a population of 427,044, of which 218,883 were males and 208,131 females. Rural population was 379,980 (88.98%) while the urban population was 47,064 (11.02%). The literacy rate was 40.98% - the male literacy rate was 59.98% while the female literacy rate was 21.35%. 503 people in the district were from religious minorities.
At the time of the 2017 census, 81.87% of the population spoke 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 languages ...
and 16.05% Saraiki as their first language.
People make their livelihood by farming, smuggling, falcon catching, migration for employment to the Persian Gulf, or by ownership of shops and businesses in Tank.
"Jirga" means ''council''. These are the religious circles and a group of people that decide the fate of the dwellers and rule the people by their sets of laws and principles.
Tourism
Shrines
The Shrine of Pir Sabir Shah Baba is one of the most visited places in the city. A number of devotees from the city and adjacent districts including Bannu, Lakki and Dera Ismail Khan visiting this Shrine. The three-day Urs of Pir Sabir Shah Baba annually organized from June 2 to June 5. Earlier, the Urs was considered to be one of the big festival of the city and a large number of people attending the Urs. The Shrine Custodian still distribute foods among people visiting the Shrine and Halwa (Traditional Sweet) given on every Wednesday. Socond popular Shrine is Mama Pir Ziarat which is located near Umar Adda and a number of devotees visiting the Shrine of Mama Pir. The Urs of Mama Pir also organized annually.
Nawab Qilla
Nawab Qilla is a mud fort built most probably by Nawab Katal Khan with views over an area of more than two hundred Kanals of land. The Qilla is situated at one corner of Tank city and that is the imaginary line-dividing Tank in to upper and lower part. The mud walls are several feet high approximately equal to a modern-day three-story building. Huge trunks of trees can be seen poking out from the walls of Qilla. These were used to give strength and stability to the mud walls. There were four huge Burgs at each corner of the Qilla with several intervening pickets at regular distance all around. The four main burgs were used as an entrance for armed men who could move around and reach guard posts from within the Qilla without being seen from outside. The Qilla had three gigantic gates. The diameter or thickness of the wall from the top was initially equal to so that a Tanga (Horse Cart) could easily move over it. The residence of NAWAB Sohib was in the center of Qilla.
Nawab of Tank Garden
The Nawab Bagh was situated at the back of Nawab Qilla, spread over an area of more than five hundred Kanals of land.
This bagh was well looked after before, during Nawab Qasim Khan time and perhaps in the early days of Qutbuddin Khan.
Nawab Qutbuddin Khan had kept large herd of buffalos, cows and it was not unusual to see a herd of two hundred or more buffalos, cows moving toward Nawab Qilla every day. Nawab bagh as said before even in the sixties was deserted, has now completely disappeared as the land was sold by Qutbuddin s’ sons and a housing colony named Qutub colony has been constructed over its place right up to city police station and Pir Sabir Shah mausoleum.
See also
*Federally Administered Tribal Areas
, conventional_long_name = Federally Administered Tribal Areas
, nation = Pakistan
, subdivision = Autonomous territory
, image_flag = Flag of FATA.svg
, image_coat = File:Coat of arms ...
* Kakka Khel
* Khwajikhel
*Kot Allah Dad Kot Allah Dad is a small village in Tank District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, located about two miles West of Tank-Dera Ismail Khan road and about 50 Kilometers from the border of South Waziristan
South Waziristan District ( ps, سويلي وزیرس ...
References
External links
Durand Line re-demarcation
*http://www.maplandia.com/pakistan/n-w-f-p/dera-ismail-khan/mullazai/
{{Coord, 32.1300, N, 70.2300, E, source:wikidata, display=title
Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
pt:Tank (Paquistão)
simple:Tank (Pakistan)
ur:ٹانک