Kohat
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  Kohat  Kohat | |
| Coordinates:33°35′N71°26′E / 33.583°N 71.433°E /33.583; 71.433 | |
| Country |  Pakistan |
| Province |  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa |
| Division | Kohat Division |
| District | Kohat District |
| Tehsil | Kohat Tehsil |
| Government | |
| • Type | Mayor-council |
| • Body | District Government |
| • Mayor | Shair Zaman[1] (JUI-F) |
| • Deputy Mayor | Vacant |
| • Deputy Commissioner | Abdul Akram Chitrali (PMS) |
| • District Police Officer | Umar Khan (BPS-18 PSP) |
| Elevation | 489 m (1,604 ft) |
| Population | |
• City | 228,779 |
| • Rank | 35th, Pakistan 4th, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa |
| Kohat Municipal Committee: 191,844 Kohat Cantonment: 36,935 | |
| Time zone | UTC+05:00 (PKT) |
| Postal code | 26000 |
| Calling code | +92 922 |
| Highways |  N-55 N-80 |
| Number ofunion councils | 31 |
| Website | kohat |
Kohat (Urdu andHindko:کوہاٹ;Pashto:کوهاټ) is a city in Pakistan that serves as the capital of theKohat District inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa province. With a population of over 220,000 people,[3] the city is thefourth most populous in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the35thmost populous in Pakistan. Kohat's immediate environs were the site of frequent armed skirmishes betweenBritish colonial forces and local tribesmen in the mid to late 19th century. The city is centred on a British-era fort, various bazaars, and a military cantonment.Pashto and theKohati dialect ofHindko are the main languages spoken in Kohat.
The city of Kohat is also the namesake of and largest city in theKohat Division, being over four times larger than the second-largest city in the division:Karak.
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Little is known of Kohat's early history.[4] According to local lore, Kohat was founded by an ancient Buddhist king by the name ofRaja Kohat.[5] Another Buddhist Raja named Adh is believed to have established his domain on the north side of the city.[5] A fort, now in ruins, serves as a marker of their domain. The remains of this fort known as Adh-e-Samut, is possibly named after Buddhist Raja Adh. The fort is still fitted with weaponry from the Buddhist period. The Buddhist kings built roads, which were in use until the end of the Mughal rule.[6]
According to local tradition they arrived here in the time of Daulat Khán son of Bai Khán. This would make their settlement contemporaneous with that of the Baizai Bangashes which seems to have taken place previous to the time of Babar's invasion (A.D. 1505) . I believe, however, that they must have arrived before the settlement of Baizai.[7]
The region had been primarily populated byOrakzai Pashtuns, who were then displaced from the west by theBangash in the 14th-15th centuries, andKhattaks from the south.[5] The Kohat region was likely firmly dominated by Bangash tribesmen by the early late 15th century following a decisive battle at nearbyAlizai,[5] after which Bangash tribes settled in the fertile valleys and assimilated remaining indigenous inhabitants into the larger Bangash tribe, while Orakzai tribes were confined to the nearby hills.[5]
The first historical record of the city comes from theBaburnama autobiography ofMughal emperorBabur.[5] After capturing Peshawar, Babur was reportedly told of vast riches in Kohat. He invaded and plundered Kohat in 1505,[5] only to discover the tales of its wealth were exaggerated.[5] After capturing Kohat, Babur's army marched towards Bangash country, where he defeated a band of tribesmen.[5]
During theNader Shah's invasion of the Mughal Empire in the 1730s and 1740s, Kohat escaped destruction as EmperorNader Shah's forces followed invasion routes north in thePeshawar Valley.[5] Following the departure of Persian forces, Kohat was absorbed into theDurrani Empire by 1747.[5]
Following the fall ofShah Shuja Durrani in 1810, Kohat was brought under control of the Durrani kingdom based in Peshawar andKabul, which leased lordship of the city to various chiefs.[5] The first chief of Kohat was Mirza Girani, who was followed in succession until 1818 by Shakur Khan, and Sultan Muhammad.[5] In 1818, Kohat came under the control of Samad Khan following the collapse of Durrani suzerainty,[5] though the city then came under the influence of Pir Muhammad in 1827.[5]
Ranjit Singh's armies marched to Peshawar in 1819.[5] In 1834, Azim Khan was defeated by the Sikhs and the chiefs of Peshawar became tributaries of the Sikh Government. Kohat was captured bySikh governor Avtar Singh Sandhanwalia in 1839,[5] and became part of Ranjit Singh'sSikh Empire, though Pir Muhammad was allowed to continue administering the region around Kohat.[5]
In 1840, the Sikhs abandoned Kohat, and Sultan Mohammed became ruler of Kohat. In 1848 during theSecond Anglo-Sikh War, Colonel George Lawrence, the British Resident atLahore, sought refuge in Kohat, but was instead taken prisoner and handed to Sikh forces in Peshawar underChattar Singh before being released. In 1849, Kohat and the rest of Punjab was formally annexed by the British.
Following British victory over the Sikhs in 1848, Kohat came under British rule and was annexed in March 1849.[5] Lieutenant Pollack was appointed as Kohat's first Assistant Commissioner.[5] British authorities inPeshawar commenced construction of theKohat Pass road in 1849,[5] and completed it by 1850 despite violent opposition from local tribes.[5] The pass was closed temporarily in 1853 after a quarrel arose among nearby tribes.[5] The road which connected Kohat toRawalpindi viaKhushalgarh was of little trouble compared to the Kohat Pass road.[5]
Kohat remained largely peaceful during theSepoy Mutiny of 1857, and local Pashtun soldiers largely ignored calls for rebellion.[5] The British established aHill Station atCherat, just north of Kohat, in the 1860s. Kohat Pass road was closed on and off by British authorities for several more years on account of quarrels among local tribes, including in 1865 when it was closed for more than one and a half years.[5] Armed skirmishes between British forces and Pashtun tribesmen continued on and off between the 1860s and 1870s.Kohat Cantonment was established by the British in 1874.[5] Routes between Kohat andBannu andThall were frequently blockaded byWazir tribesmen by 1880 that resulted in large clashes between the British and Wazirs.[5] In theTirah campaign of 1897–98 Kohat was the starting point ofSir William Lockhart's expedition against theAfridis andMohmands.[8]
In 1924,Kohat was the scene of widespread communal rioting that resulted in a 21-day fast byMohandas Gandhi, known popularly as Mahatma Gandhi, as a plea for unity.[9] During the1947 Kashmir War, Pashtun tribesmen from around the region convened in Kohat before departing forKashmir in hopes of capturing the territory for Pakistan.[10]
Kohat suffered several attacks during theWar in North-West Pakistan andwar on terror between 2008 and 2014. 35 people were killed in a suicide bombing in 2009,[11] whiletwin bombings in April 2010 killed 41. 20 more were killed in a suicide bombing in September 2010,[12] while the Kohat Tunnel was attacked by the Pakistani Taliban in January 2011, resulting in the deaths of 5 people.[13] 2 more were killed in a bomb attack in July 2013.[14] In February 2014, 12 were killed in a roadside blast near the city,[15] while 6 more were killed in an attack on a van in October 2014.[16] After a few years' lull in violence, 5 policemen were killed outside of Kohat following an anti-terror operation in May 2017.[17]
Kohat city is located at an altitude of 489 metres (1,604 ft).[18]Kohat Pass lies to the north. It is situated on the left bank of the Toi river at a point where after running nearly due east for 50 miles (80 km), it turns to the south. The total area of the district is 2,545 square kilometres (983 sq mi)
Kohat has ahot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classificationBSh).
| Climate data for Kohat (1961-1990) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 17 (63) | 20 (68) | 25 (77) | 31 (88) | 36 (97) | 38 (100) | 35 (95) | 34 (93) | 33 (91) | 30 (86) | 23 (73) | 18 (64) | 28 (82) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 4 (39) | 7 (45) | 11 (52) | 16 (61) | 21 (70) | 24 (75) | 24 (75) | 24 (75) | 21 (70) | 15 (59) | 8 (46) | 5 (41) | 15 (59) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 25 (1.0) | 31 (1.2) | 31 (1.2) | 20 (0.8) | 36 (1.4) | 44 (1.7) | 114 (4.5) | 95 (3.7) | 44 (1.7) | 16 (0.6) | 9 (0.4) | 39 (1.5) | 504 (19.7) |
| Source: My Weather[19] | |||||||||||||
Kohat has a dam calledTanda Dam located on Tanda Lake, which is a protected site under theRamsar Convention.[20] Completed in 1967, it was included as a Ramsar site on July 23, 1976.
Tanda Wildlife Park is located near Kohat city. The total area of the park is 2800 acres (11 km²), consisting of Tanda reservoir and its catchments in Kohat. This is the largest wildlife park ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa. Its wonderfully rich and varied landscape supports a range of mammals and birds, both migratory and indigenous, as well as a few reptiles. Kohat is famous for guava.
The park is bounded by three different villages, Bar, Kaghazi, and Tanda Banda. The park is approachable by Hangu-kaghazigravel road, shahpur-Bar road which is 18 km from Kohat.
The local people do not have any right of grazing, lopping or firewood collection as the ownership lies with the provincial government. The park area falls in the natural habitat of urial and chinkara, and also provides suitable habitat to hog deer. The urial is associated with scrub forest of Olea species and Accassia species. Urial were once abundant in the area but due to continuous habitat destruction these were disappeared from the area in the near past. The natural habitat of urial and chinkara lies in close proximity of human habitation.[21]
KotalPheasantry is established in Kotal wildlife park in district Kohat over an area of 1kanal, with an objective to propagate and provide breeding environment to exotic/indigenous wildlife species like silver pheasant, golden pheasant, reeves pheasant, pea-cock etc. About 20-30 visitors including students and general public visit the pheasantry for education and recreation purposes per day. There are four species of pheasants in the pheasantry including ring necked pheasant, silver pheasant, peacock pheasant and white pheasant.[22]
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1941 | 44,977 | — |
| 1951 | 40,534 | −1.03% |
| 1961 | 49,854 | +2.09% |
| 1972 | 65,202 | +2.47% |
| 1981 | 77,604 | +1.95% |
| 1998 | 126,627 | +2.92% |
| 2017 | 228,779 | +3.16% |
| 2023 | 235,880 | +0.51% |
| Source:[3][23][24] | ||
Kohat is regarded as a centre of theBangash tribe ofPashtuns, who have lived in the region since the late 15th century.[5]
According to the 2023 Census of Pakistan,Pashto is overwhelmingly dominant in Kohat City, spoken by 73.30% of the population.Hindko is the second most common first language at 19.70%,Urdu accounts for 3.75% of speakers, followed byPunjabi at 2.41%, this is followed by an additional 0.85% which consists of a multitude of otherlanguages spoken in Pakistan (mostlySaraiki andSindhi).[26]
| Religious group | 1881[28][29][30] | 1901[31][32] | 1911[33][34] | 1921[35][36] | 1931[37] | 1941[27] | 2017[38] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | |
Islam | 13,752 | 75.65% | 19,818 | 64.42% | 15,930 | 70.32% | 18,898 | 67.85% | 24,388 | 71% | 32,111 | 71.39% | 224,520 | 98.23% |
Hinduism [b] | 2,798 | 15.39% | 7,833 | 25.46% | 4,850 | 21.41% | 5,796 | 20.81% | 6,709 | 19.53% | 8,250 | 18.34% | 978 | 0.43% |
Sikhism | 1,562 | 8.59% | 2,832 | 9.21% | 1,693 | 7.47% | 2,139 | 7.68% | 2,152 | 6.26% | 3,562 | 7.92% | N/a | N/a |
Jainism | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a |
Christianity | N/a | N/a | 279 | 0.91% | 168 | 0.74% | 1,020 | 3.66% | 1,101 | 3.21% | 445 | 0.99% | 2,942 | 1.29% |
Judaism | N/a | N/a | 0 | 0% | 13 | 0.06% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | N/a | N/a |
Zoroastrianism | N/a | N/a | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | N/a | N/a |
Buddhism.svg) | N/a | N/a | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a |
Ahmadiyya | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | 51 | 0.02% |
| Others | 67 | 0.37% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 609 | 1.35% | 64 | 0.03% |
| Total population | 18,179 | 100% | 30,762 | 100% | 22,654 | 100% | 27,853 | 100% | 34,350 | 100% | 44,977 | 100% | 228,555 | 100% |
Construction of theKohat Tehsil railway station and railway line was started in 1897, and was completed in 1902. TheKohat Cantonment railway station serves as the terminus for theKhushalgarh–Kohat–Thal Railway - which ceased onward narrow gauge (762 mm or 2 ft 6 in) railway service to Thall in 1991. Kohat is the terminus railway station of Kohat[39]-Jand railway line and has daily train service toRawalpindi.
The Kohat Rail Service, suspended in 2013 due to unforeseen circumstances, caused immense hardship for the local population. Undeterred, President Saleem Altaf Advocate spearheaded a peaceful movement through Karwaan-E-Amal Kohat. Following a resilient 4-year struggle, the Kohat Rail Service was triumphantly restored in 2017. Today, millions of people in Kohat reap the benefits of this vital transportation link.
The nearest airport served by commercial services isBacha Khan International Airport inPeshawar.Kohat Airbase (IATA:OHT,ICAO:OPKT) is aPakistan Air Force base that began as a runway built by the British.PIA once used the airport usingde Havilland Twin Otter, though Kohat is no longer served by commercial services.
Kohat is a major node on theN-55 Indus Highway that connects Peshawar toKarachi, and theN-80 highway that connects Kohat toIslamabad. The 1.9 kilometres (1.2 mi)Kohat Tunnel was completed in 2004,[40] and connects the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa toPeshawar. Constructed withJapanese assistance, the tunnel drastically reduced travel times across theKohat Pass.
Kohat plays a central role in theeighth season of U.S. political thrillerHomeland particularly in the episodesThrenody(s),In Full Flight andDesignated Driver.[42]
Kohat Cantonment was established in the British Era, and it is one of the eight cantonments falling in the Peshawar region. Kohat is also the headquarters of Pakistan'sInter Services Selection Board (ISSB), which selects commissioned officers for the Pakistan armed forces of Pakistan including the Army, Navy and Air Force.
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kohat".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 886.
Administrative divisions ofKohat District | ||
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