Sights and Sounds of Kohat Part-1

Sights and Sounds of Kohat Part-1

Kohat is a famous city of NWFP, located 37 miles south of Peshawar by the Kohat Pass. The Kohat district is spread over an area of some 3000 square miles. The city centres on a British-era fort, various bazaars, and a military cantonment. There are a number
of shrines of revered religious scholars that include sufi saint Haji Bahadar Ali Abdullah Shah and Mian Fateh Shah. The town boasts many mosques and schools. A British built narrow gauge railway runs through the town.

To the north of the city lies Kohat Pass, through which a military road was opened in 1901. No one really knows how old Kohat is. It is said that in the Buddhist times, two Rajas named Adh and Kohat settled along with the northern border of the district.
Raja Kohat gave his name to the town of Kohat , and Raja Adh to the ruins of an old fort on the hill side north of the Muhammadzai , a village four miles to the west of Kohat.

In 1505 AD, the Mughal Emperor Zaheer ud Din Babar is also said to have visited the place. In the beginning of 19th century Kohat came under the control of Sikhs when Ranjit Singh first marched to Peshawar in 1819.

In 1832 Azim Khan was defeated by Ranjit Singh with great slaughter near Naushera , after which Peshawar Sirdars became tributary to the Sikh Government , who sent an army each year to collect the revenue. In 1834 Sikh General Autar gained possession of
Peshawar and a Sikh Autar Singh Sindhanwalia became the governor of Kohat. The town finally fell to ultimately fell to Khan of Teri in 1836.

Kohat however came to prominence during the British rule of India when the British entrenched themselves with the Afghans in the three Afghan wars. Kohat was annexed to the British dominion on 28th March 1849 with the rest of Punjab and an Assistant Commissioner
was posted here to run the administration and to look after the British interests.

In the initial stages of the British administration, the locals of the area posed considerable problems, although some of the tribe later joined with the British Government and helped them in running the area.

To be continued…

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=18920

Posted by Naveed A Bari on Apr 13 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry