Bannu Cantonment
Frontier Region Bannu lies between 32°43' and 33 °06' north latitudes and 70°22' and 70°57' east longitudes. The district is bounded on the north by tribal area adjoining Banu districts, on the east by Karak District, on the south by Lakki Marwat district and on the west by South Waziristan agency and tribal area adjoining Lakki Marwat and Bannu districts.
The population of Bannu is, and has been for many centuries, essentially Afghan. There are, however, remains which tell of an older Hindu population, and afford proof that the District came within the pale of the ancient Graeco-Bactrian civilization of the Punjab. The close of the era of prosperity indicated by these remains is attributed in local tradition to the ravages of Mahmud of Ghazni, who is said to have utterly demolished the ancient Hindu strongholds, leaving no stone standing upon another. For upwards of a century the country appears to have lain waste.
Bannu was traversed by the raids of Mahmud Ghaznavi in the early 11th century AD and in the century of chaos which followed, was colonized by the Afghan tribe called Bannudi or Bannuwal, who still occupy part of the district to which the name was given. The Bannu valley was gradually colonized by immigrants from the western hills, the Bannuwals or Bannuchis, and the Niazai, who subsequently gave place to the Marwats. The advent of the Marwats is placed in the reign of Akbar. The Niazai, whom they expelled, spread across the Khattak-Niazai hills, and colonized the plains upon both banks of the Indus. Taimoor is said to have crossed Bannu for his massive raid on the Punjab and Dehli in 1398.
The country paid a nominal allegiance to the Delhi emperors. In 1738 it was conquered by Nadir Shah, who laid it completely waste. Ahmad Shah Durrani subsequently led his army three or four times through the Bannu valley, levying what he could by way of tribute on each occasion. So stubborn, however, was the opposition of the inhabitants, that neither conqueror made any attempt to establish a permanent government. In 1818 the Nawab of Mankera annexed Marwat, but was speedily forced to give way to Ranjit Singh, who first crossed the Indus in 1823. From that year to 1836 the Sikh troops and those of the Nawab in turn harried the country.
In 1837, for two months or more, the British had severe fighting with some thousands of Waziris and Bannuites united. However, they levelled and burnt all the refractory Bannu fort - villages, and beat the Waziris back into their hills, and even well punished and dispersed them. This done, we marched by the Paizu2 Pass to Tank, to punish the Nawab of that principality-he being the cause and instigator of all the late troubles in this quarter. By 1838 it had fallen to Sikh Kingdom of Ranjit Singh but eleven years later second Sikh War brought it under British control.
In the spring of 1848, just twenty-eight years ago, the late Sir Herbert Edwardes, then a young lieutenant in the service of the East India Company, achieved in a few months the bloodless conquest of the Bannu valley - a valley studded with 400 village-forts, which all the might of a military nation like the Sikhs had failed to subdue, though for twenty years and more they had made repeated efforts to do so. During the second Sikh war, Lai Baz gave the British hearty assistance. While his brother Darab Khan was fighting for the british before Multan, he himself was taken prisoner by the Sikhs on the capitulation of the Bannu fort in 1848. In reward for his services the tappa malikship was confirmed to him, together with the perpetual cash jagir assignment of one quarter the revenue of his tappa, in which was included the connected tappa of Sadat.
Bannu District was formally constituted in 1861. In the Bannu valley every village was a fort, and frequently at war with its neighbors, while the Wazir tribes on the frontier were ever seeking opportunities for aggression.
In June 2009 Security forces conducted operations in Frontier Region (FR) Bannu and targeted the militants' positions with jet fighters, gunship choppers and artillery in Janikhel and Zaidi Akbar Khan areas. Official sources said more than 150 militants had been killed in the three-day military offensive. Security forces shelled the suspected hideouts of the militants in Janikhel and Zaidi Akbar Khan with artillery from Bannu Cantt while gunship choppers and jet fighters also straffed the insurgents' locations in these areas. For two months or more we had severe fighting with some thousands of Waziris and Bannuites united. However, we levelled and burnt all the refractory Bannu fort - villages, and beat the Waziris back into their hills, and even well punished and dispersed them. This done, we marched by the Paizu2 Pass to Tank, to punish the Nawab of that principality-he being the cause and instigator of all the late troubles in this quarter
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