Malakand District

MALAKAND DISTRICT, having an area of about 952 square kilometres and a population of over 4.5 lakhs as per population census of 1998 is situated in the lower reaches of the Swat region. Its limits start when the last boundary of Shergarh village in Mardan District touches the outskirts of Sakhakot village as one travels from Peshawar to Swat on the main highway. At the meeting point between Shergarh and Sakhakot, police and custom check posts are functioning and the point is known as Sakhakot Board. Travelling through Sakhakot one enters Dargai village, which is followed by the mountainous terrain of about 15 kilometres known as Malakand Pass or Darrah Malakand much less difficult to cross than before because of a mattled road in it now. Crossing through the same hilly pass you will enter the countrys largest Batkhela Bazar. You proceed onwards till Landakay village where the limits of District Malakand end and District Swat welcomes you. In ancient history the name of Malakand has appeared as Mala Kund or Mullah Kandao. There exist different versions vis a vis its genesis as Malakand. Some historians say that the word Malakand is a combination of two Persian words i.e mala and kund. In Pushto mala means aamail (garland) and kund means ubo (water).

Map of Malakand District

They give the impression that when anyone crosses the Malakand Pass the river Swat looks like a mala (aamail). Another concept is that the name Malakand has been derived from the words Mullah Kandao. Those who believe on this concept take it as combination of two words---Mullah and Kandao. Mullah means a religious saint and Kandao means a lofty place. Some people term the name Malakand as Mlakandao which means curved like the backbone of the body. The version that looks more convincing is based on the premise that due to the very steep nature of the pass, travellers after reaching its top, would complain of backache and thus ask for kund which in Pashto is a tonic for restoration of normalcy, and Mala in Pashto means for me-- and thus Mala Kund that is tonic for me gave the name Malakand to the small hamlet on the top. All the notions about the name of Malakand have one point similar and that is the characteristic of being a difficult territory or place to climb on. In fact it is situated on a curved line almost in a zig zag position. Many poets in the past have also termed the mountainous terrain very difficult to negotiate. Khushal Khan Khattak describes in one of his couplets that the pony riders will find it more difficult to climb on the path going to Malakand and cautions those having lamb feet not to think of climbing on the Malakand pass. Any how the name Malakand is now-a-days an important and well-known name and has been adopted in the same form by many other villages in the Swat and Dir districts.The area surrounded by Malakand--- on the south till Sakhakot Board, on the north Pull Chawki or Chakdara Bridge, towards the east till Landakay and to the west till Kot Agra comes in the limits of Malakand District. In addition to the above clarification Malakand is bounded on the north by Lower Dir district, on the east by the district of Buner, on the south-east by Mardan district and south-west by Charsadda district and Mohmand Agency. It is also bounded by a range of mountains on the north-east separating it from district Swat and another range of mountains to the west separating it from Bajaur and Mohmand agencies