Kohat District (, ) 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, municip ...

in the

Kohat Division Kohat Division is one of the seven divisions in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It consists of five districts: Hangu, Karak, Kohat, Kurram, and Orakzai. The division borders Bannu Division to the south and west, Peshawar Divisio ...

of the

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Kohat Kohat (; ) is a city that serves as the capital of the Kohat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is regarded as a centre of the Bangash tribe of Pashtuns, who have lived in the region since the late 15th century. With a population o ...

city is its district capital.

History

Mughal era

From the early sixteenth century, the history of Kohat revolves around three major tribes namely

Bangash The Bangash, Bungish, Bangaš or Bangakh () are a tribe of Pashtuns, inhabiting their traditional homeland, the Bangash district which stretches from Kohat to Tall in Hangu and Spīn Ghar, Kurram in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. They also live ...

Banoori Banuri (also spelled Banoori or Binori) is the family name of Sayyids from the family of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, being his direct descendants and deriving lineage through Sheikh Sayyid Adam Banuri from the Pakhtun region of Afghanistan (tod ...

, and

Afridi The Afrīdī ( ''Aprīdai'', plur. ''Aprīdī''; ) are a Pashtun tribe present mostly in tribal areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The Afridis are most dominant in the Spin Ghar range west of Peshawar in Tribal areas of modern-day Khyb ...

. These people seemingly established their settlements within the district during the 14th and 15th centuries. From 16th to 18th centuries, Kohat being the part of

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

was administered by the chiefs of the two aforementioned tribes.

British

Kohat district was annexed by the British from its former

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

rulers after the

Second Anglo-Sikh War The Second Anglo-Sikh War was a military conflict between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company which took place from 1848 to 1849. It resulted in the fall of the Sikh Empire, and the annexation of the Punjab region, Punjab and what sub ...

of 1848–1849.

Demography

Population

As of the 2023 census, Kohat district has 169,679 households and a population of 1,234,661. The district has a sex ratio of 104.05 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 58.55%: 76.38% for males and 40.28% for females. 334,178 (27.07% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. 278,741 (22.58%) live in urban areas.

Languages

At the time of the 2023 census, 85.90% of the population spoke

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

, 12.43%

Hindko Hindko (, , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Pun ...

, and 0.83%

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

as their first language.

Religion

In Kohat District, 99.49% people subscribe to Islamic faith.

Administration

Kohat district is divided into four

Tehsils A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative ce ...

Provincial Assembly

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * This provides a detailed geographical description of the Kohat district of British India, which was larger than the current district. Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Long stubs with short prose {{Pakistan-geo-stub