Bannu

Bannu (Pashto: بنو, romanized: banū, pronounced [/bɑnu/] pronounceⓘ; Urdu: بنوں, romanized: bannū̃, pronounced [bənːũː] pronounceⓘ) also called Bana and Bani (Pashto: باني, romanized: bānī, pronounced [/ˈbɑni] pronounceⓘ) is a city located on the Kurram River in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the capital of Bannu Division. Bannu's residents are primarily members of the Banuchi tribe[4] and speak Banuchi (Baniswola) [5]dialect of Pashto which is similar to the distinct Waziristani dialect. The residents regardless of their tribes are commonly called Banusi, Banuchi or Banisi.

For other uses, see Bannu (disambiguation).

Bannu
  • بنو
  • بنوں
City
Kurram River, Bannu
Kurram River, Bannu
Nickname: 
Bani Gul
Bannu is located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Bannu
Bannu
Location within Pakistan
Bannu is located in Pakistan
Bannu
Bannu
Bannu (Pakistan)
Coordinates: 32°59′11″N 70°36′16″E
Country Pakistan
Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
DivisionBannu
DistrictBannu
HeadquartersBannu
Government
[1]
 • TypeMayor-coucil
 • BodyDistrict Government
 • MayorIrfan Khan Durrani[2] (JUI-F)
 • Deputy CommissionerCapt. (R) Muhammad Zubair Khan Niazi BPS-18(PAS)
 • District Police OfficerDr. Muhammad Iqbal (BPS-18 PSP)
Area
 • District Bannu1,972 km2 (761 sq mi)
Elevation
375.514 m (1,232.001 ft)
Population
 (2023)[3]
 • District Bannuaround 1,357,890
Time zoneUTC+5 (PST)
Highways N-55
N-5
Websitebannu.kp.gov.pk

The major industries of Bannu are cloth weaving, sugar mills[6] and the manufacturing of cotton fabrics, machinery and equipment.[7] It is famous for its weekly Jumma fair. The district forms a basin drained by the Kurram and Gambila (or Tochi) rivers.[8]

Etymology

According to the philologist Michael Witzel, the city was originally known in Avestan as Varəna, from which its modern name derives. The ancient Sanskrit grammarian, Pāṇini, recorded its name as Varṇu.[9]

Sattagydia (𓐠𓂧𓎼𓍯𓍒𓈉, S-d-g-wꜣ-ḏꜣ), on the Egyptian Statue of Darius I.

During the 6th century BCE, the basin around Bannu was known as Sattagydia (Old Persian: 𐎰𐎫𐎦𐎢𐏁 Thataguš, country of the "hundred cows").

History
Tomb of Xerxes I, Sattagydian soldier of the Achaemenid army, c. 480 BCE

The history of Bannu goes back to prehistoric times, due to its strategic location along the Kurram and Tochi routes which lead into the Indus Valley. Sheri Khan Tarakai is an ancient settlement site located in the Bannu District with ruins of the oldest known village settlement in the Bannu region, which was occupied from the late fifth until the early third millennium BCE.[10] Recent archaeological excavations at Akra, Bannu showed that it was a large urban site that existed throughout the Iron Age and had trade relations with Central Asia.[11]

The sacred texts of Zend Avesta and Vendidad mentions Varəna, the Avestan predecessor of the name for Bannu, as the 14th in the list of the "16 perfect lands" created by Ahura Mazda.[9] According to the Avesta, Varəna was the homeland and birthplace of the legendary King Fereydun (known in Avestan as Θraētaona, and also known as Āθβiiāni, "of the house of Abtin").[12]: 47–50 

In the 6th century BCE, the region around Bannu was known as Sattagydia (lit. "country of 100 cows") and constituted the southern part of the greater region of Paropamisadae. Under the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Sattagydia became part of the Empire's 7th taxation district, which also included the Gandāra, Dadicae, and Aparytae regions. Sattagydia was mentioned in the Behistun inscription of Darius the Great as one of the satrapies in revolt while the king was in Babylon. The revolt was presumably suppressed in 515 BCE.

Akra_(A)_Mound,_Bannu
The Akra mound in Bannu, which dates back to 6th century BC during Achaemenid rule

After being conquered by Alexander in the 4th century BCE, the region became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire for a short while until the Mauryan Empire took control over the region around 305 BCE, as the entire region of North-West India constituting Paropamisadae, Arachosia and Gedrosia was transferred to Mauryan Empire by the Seleucids.

After the decline of Mauryan Empire, the region fell under the administrative and political control of Indo-Greeks, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthians successively. Kushan emperor Kujula Kadphises defeated the Indo-Parthians and incorporated the region under the Kushan Empire. In the Tochi Valley of North Waziristan near Bannu, Bactrian language inscriptions originally written in the 9th century have been discovered. This shows that after the collapse of the Kushan Empire, its official language continued in use for at least six more centuries.[13]

After the decline of the Kushan Empire, the region subsequently came under the control of Gupta Empire. The Kidarites began invading the North-West regions of Gupta Empire during the reign of Emperor Kumaragupta. The Gupta Empire ended up losing its control over the region around the early 5th century CE.

The Kidarites then too came under the attack from Hephthalites who defeated the Kidarites and appointed sub-rulers and kings to rule over the region. Hūṇa King Mihirakula was the most famous ruler from the Alchon Hun dynasty. Brahminical Hinduism became the predominant religion in the region under his reign, after his persecution of Buddhism. Chinese Buddhist traveller, Xuanzang, who visited the region in the 6th century CE described the locals as followers of the Hindu god, Shiva, with no worship of Buddha to be found.

Aulikara ruler, Yashodharman defeated the Hūṇa King Toramana and took control over most of North-West India. The remnants of the Hepthalite Empire continued to rule over the region until the 9th century CE when the Hindu Shahis came to power and established their rule over the region for over 150 years.

In the late 10th and early 11th century CE, the Ghaznavids conquered the area. Mahmud of Ghazni used the Bannu route for several of his raids deeper into Northern India.[14]

British rule
Historical Population
YearPop.±% p.a.
1951 27,199—    
1961 31,623+1.52%
1972 43,757+3.00%
1981 43,210−0.14%
1998 47,676+0.58%
2017 49,965+0.25%
Source: [15][16]

The city was renamed in 1848 by Herbert Benjamin Edwardes, a lieutenant in the 1st Bengal European Fusiliers Regiment of the East India Company's private army. He ordered the construction of the fort – named Dhulipgarh (Dalipgarh) in honour of the Maharajah of Lahore – at the same time.[17] At the time of its founding, the town was named Dhulipnagar (Dalipnagar). Its name was later changed to Edwardesabad in 1869. In 1903, it received its current name, Bannu.[18]

Bannu was used as the base of operations for all punitive expeditions undertaken by detachments of the British Indian Army to the Tochi Valley and the Waziristan frontier. A military road led from the town of Bannu toward Dera Ismail Khan.[19] This road was built by military engineers under the supervision of a Bannu engineer, Ram N. Mullick. Mullick graduated from Banaras Engineering College[20] and had served in Iraq and Lahore as an expert in heavy earth-moving equipment before the independence of Pakistan in 1947.

According to 1941 Census, Bannu was a Hindu majority city.

Mallak Jaffar Khan Yousafzai, Rais of Ghoriwala Bannu, A Horse Merchant, Circa 1816-1820

According to the Imperial British Gazetteer, Bannu was described by the following:

[The population in 1901 was] 14,291, including cantonment and civil lines (4,349). It was founded in 1848 by Lieutenant (afterwards Sir Herbert) Edwardes, who selected the site for political reasons. The fort, erected at the same time, bore the name of Dhulipgarh (Dalipgarh), in honour of the Maharaja of Lahore; and the bazar was also known as Dhulipnagar (Dalipnagar). A town gradually grew up around the bazar, and many Hindko speaking Hindu traders moved there from Bazar Ahmad Khan, which had formed the commercial center of the Bannu valley prior to annexation. The Church Missionary Society supports a small church and a high school founded in 1865. The cantonment centers in the fort of Dhulipgarh. Its garrison consists of a mountain battery, a regiment of native cavalry, and two regiments of infantry. The municipality was constituted in 1867.


The municipal receipts and expenditure during the ten years ending 1903–1904 averaged Rs. 46,000. In 1903–1904 the income was Rs. 47,000 chiefly derived from octroi; and the expenditure was Rs. 55,000. The receipts and expenditure of cantonment funds during the ten years ending 1902–3 averaged Rs. 4,200 and Rs. 3,700. The profuse irrigation and insufficient drainage of the surrounding fields render Bannu an unhealthy station. The town has a considerable trade, including fish guts and butts. Also, embracing the whole traffic in local produce of the Bannu valley. The nearest railway station is at Kohat on the Khushalgarh-Thal branch of the North-Western Railway, 79 miles distant by road. A weekly fair collects an average number of 8,000 buyers and sellers. The chief articles of trade are cloth, live-stock, wool, cotton, tobacco and grain. Bannu possesses a dispensary and two high schools, a public library and a town hall known as the Nicholson Memorial.[5]

Hindus and Sikhs of Bannu migrating to India during the partition of 1947

1947 Bannu Jirga
Main article: Bannu Resolution

On 21 June 1947 in Bannu, a jirga was held by Pashtun leaders including Bacha Khan, his brother Chief Minister Dr Khan Sahib, the Khudai Khidmatgars, members of the Provincial Assembly, Mirzali Khan (Faqir of Ipi), and other tribal chiefs, just seven weeks before the Partition of India. The jirga declared the Bannu Resolution, which demanded that the Pashtuns be given a choice to have an independent state of Pashtunistan composing all Pashtun territories of British India, instead of being made to join either India or Pakistan. However, the British Raj refused to comply with the demand of this resolution, in response to which the Khudai Khidmatgars boycotted the 1947 North-West Frontier Province referendum for merging the province into Pakistan.[21][22]

2022 Pashtun National Jirga
Main article: Pashtun National Jirga

On 11–14 March 2022, the Pashtun National Jirga was held at Mirakhel in Bannu in order to defend the rights of the Pashtun people in the country. The critical issues which were faced by the Pashtuns were discussed during the jirga in a bid to suggest solutions to them.[23][24]

Geography

Climate

Bannu has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh) with extremely hot summers and mild winters. The average annual temperature is 24.8 °C (76.6 °F), with the hottest month being June with an average high of 42.2 °C (108.0 °F) and the coolest month being January with an average low of 5.9 °C (42.6 °F). The average annual precipitation is 311.8 mm (12.28 in), with the majority falling in the monsoon season from July to September.

Climate data for Bannu
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 17.5
(63.5)		 20.0
(68.0)		 25.5
(77.9)		 32.5
(90.5)		 39.3
(102.7)		 41.5
(106.7)		 37.5
(99.5)		 36.0
(96.8)		 35.0
(95.0)		 31.0
(87.8)		 24.5
(76.1)		 18.5
(65.3)		 29.9
(85.8)
Daily mean °C (°F) 10.0
(50.0)		 12.2
(54.0)		 17.0
(62.6)		 23.8
(74.8)		 30.6
(87.1)		 34.8
(94.6)		 32.6
(90.7)		 31.2
(88.2)		 28.6
(83.5)		 22.3
(72.1)		 14.9
(58.8)		 9.8
(49.6)		 22.3
(72.2)
Average low °C (°F) 2.5
(36.5)		 4.5
(40.1)		 8.5
(47.3)		 15.0
(59.0)		 22.0
(71.6)		 27.5
(81.5)		 25.5
(77.9)		 24.5
(76.1)		 19.5
(67.1)		 12.0
(53.6)		 5.5
(41.9)		 2.0
(35.6)		 14.1
(57.4)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 45
(1.8)		 50
(2.0)		 60
(2.4)		 20
(0.8)		 10
(0.4)		 10
(0.4)		 95
(3.7)		 85
(3.3)		 15
(0.6)		 5
(0.2)		 10
(0.4)		 30
(1.2)		 435
(17.2)
Source 1: Climate-Data.org[25]
Source 2: World Weather Online[26]

Education

The first public sector university, University of Science and Technology, Bannu, opened in 2005. Bannu also has a medical college, Bannu Medical College,[27][28] and a campus of University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar.[29][30] The oldest and most renowned public sector institution is Government Post-Graduate College Bannu, which started operating in 1951.[31]

The following is a list of some of the public and private universities and colleges in Bannu:

Notable people

See also

References
  1. "District Bannu". Department of Local Government, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  2. "Bannu City Council - KPK Local Body Election Result 2021". Geo News. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  3. "POPULATION AND HOUSEHOLD DETAIL FROM BLOCK TO DISTRICT LEVEL KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA (BANNU DISTRICT)" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  4. Bannu; or our Afghan Frontier. S.S. Thorbourne, 1883. Trűbner & Co., London, pp. 3, 5.
  5. "Bannu Town – Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 6, p. 02". Dsal.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  6. "Bannu | Pakistan | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  7. "Lawyers continue protest". www.thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  8. Yunas, S. Fida (2015). Bannu: Its History and Culture (First ed.). Karachi: Oxford University Press.
  9. Michael Witzel, "The Home of the Aryans" people.fas.harvard.edu.
  10. Petrie, C.A., Thomas, K.D. & Morris, J.C. 2010. Chronology of Sheri Khan Tarakai, in Petrie, C.A. (ed.). Sheri Khan Tarakai and early village life in the borderlands of north-west Pakistan, Bannu Archaeological Project Monographs – Volume 1, Oxbow Books, Oxford: 343–352.
  11. Fleming, David (1982). "Achaemenid Sattagydia and the geography of Vivana's campaigns (DB III, 54–75)". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland. 114 (2): 102–112. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00159155. ISSN 0035-869X. S2CID 130771356.
  12. Gherardo Gnoli. Zoroaster's Time and Homeland: a study on the origins of Mazdeism.Published by Istituto Universitario Orientale (1980), ASIN: B0018NEFO0.
  13. History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations, 700 B. C. to A, Part 250 (illustrated ed.). UNESCO. 1994. p. 433. ISBN 9231028464. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
  14. https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tochi_Valley
  15. "TABLE-1: AREA & POPULATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS BY RURAL/URBAN: 1951–1998 CENSUSES" (PDF). Administrative Units.pdf. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  16. "POPULATION AND HOUSEHOLD DETAIL FROM BLOCK TO DISTRICT LEVEL KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA (BANNU DISTRICT)" (PDF). BANNU_BLOCKWISE.pdf. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. 3 January 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  17. "Bannu Town – Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 6, p. 02". Dsal.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  18. "Bannu | Pakistan". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  19. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bannu" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 355.
  20. "Clone of ITBHUGlobal.org: The Chronicle: Early Pioneers of IT-BHU". Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  21. Ali Shah, Sayyid Vaqar (1993). Marwat, Fazal-ur-Rahim Khan (ed.). Afghanistan and the Frontier. University of Michigan: Emjay Books International. p. 256. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  22. H Johnson, Thomas; Zellen, Barry (2014). Culture, Conflict, and Counterinsurgency. Stanford University Press. p. 154. ISBN 9780804789219. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  23. "Nationalist parties convene jirga on Pakhtun issues". The News International. 12 March 2022.
  24. "په بنو کې درې ورځنۍ "پښتون قامي جرګه" روانه ده". Radio Mashaal (in Pashto).
  25. "Climate: Bannu - Climate-Data.org". Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  26. "Bannu Weather Forecast". Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  27. Junaidi, Ikram (6 July 2013). "HEC announces ranking of universities". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  28. "RECOGNIZED MEDICAL COLLEGES IN PAKISTAN". Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  29. "PESHAWAR: Engineering varsity campus opens". DAWN.COM. 19 May 2002. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  30. "Another four-year term for UET VC". The News. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  31. "Government Post Graduate College Bannu - Online College Admission System, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa". www.admission.hed.gkp.pk. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  32. "NA approves bill to set up Kalam Bibi varisity in Bannu". Daily Times. 5 April 2023. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  33. "GCN Bannu – Provincial Health Services Academy". Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  34. desk, News (15 March 2023). "NA Deputy Speaker inaugurates law college". Pakistan Observer. Retrieved 6 October 2023. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
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