Kohat Town and Kohat District

Publishing Date: Sunday, July 3 2005

Kohat is an army town and divisional head quarters south of Peshawar. It is from here that you can obtain the permit to travel to the nearby tribal Kurram Agency into Parachinar. On the way to Kohat, is the stony Kohat Pass or the "Handy Side" locally known as Kotal Pass.

Kohat is around an hour and half to two hours from Peshawar by road. The distance is around 37 miles. This road was first opened up in 1901 that passes through tribal territory. Buses go from Peshawar's main and Cantonment GTS stands whereas mini buses go from Bhanamari Chowk. Buses crossing the Kohat pass are searched at random. Bannu is two to three hours away, whereas Dera Ismail Khan is around 6 hours away. However, with the construction of the Kohat tunnel and the Indus highway, these distances have been reduced to considerable extent.

Skyline of Kohat

The District of Kohat has an area of 2973 sq. m. It consists chiefly of a bare and intricate mountain region east of the Indus, deeply scored with river valleys and ravines, but enclosing a few scattered patches of cultivated lowland. The eastern or Khattak country especially comprises a perfect labyrinth of ranges, which fall, however,-into two principal groups, to the north and south of the Ten Toi river. The Miranzai valley, in the extreme west, appears by comparison a rich and fertile tract. In its small but carefully tilled glens, the plane, palm, fig and many orchard trees flourish luxuriantly; while a brushwood of wild olive, mimosa and other thorny bushes clothes the rugged ravines upon the upper slopes. Occasional grassy glades upon their sides form favourite pasture grounds for the Waziri tribes. The Ten Toi, rising on the eastern limit of Upper Miranzai, runs due eastward to the Indus, which it joins I 2 m. N. of Makhad, dividing the district into two main portions. The drainage from the northern half flows southward into the Ten Toi itself, and northward into the parallel stream of the Kohat Toi. That of the southern tract falls northwards also into the Ten Toi, and southwards towards the Kurram and the Indus. The frontier mountains, continuations of the Safed Koh system, attain in places a considerable elevation, the two principal peaks, Dupa Sir and Mazi Garh, just beyond the British frontier, being 8260 and 7940 ft. above the sea respectively. The Waziri hills, on the south, extend like a wedge between the boundaries of Bannu and Kohat, with a general elevation of less than 4000 ft. The salt-mines are situated in the low line of hills crossing the valley of the Toi, and extending along both banks of that river. The deposit has a width of a quarter of a mile, with a thickness of 1000 ft.; it sometimes forms hills 200 ft. in height, almost entirely composed of solid rock-salt, and may probably rank as one of the largest veins of its kind in the world. The most extensive exposure occurs at Bahadur Khel, on the south bank of the Ten Toi. The annual output is about 16,000 tons, yielding a revenue of 40,000. Petroleum springs exude from a rock at Panoba, 23 m. east of Kohat; and sulphur abounds in the northern range. In 1901 the population was 217,865, showing an increase of II % in the decade. The frontier tribes on the Kohat border are the Afridis, Orakzais, Zaimukhts and Turis. All these are described under their separate names. A railway runs from Kushalgarh through Kohat to Thal, and the river Indus has been bridged at Kushalgarh.

This army town and divisional headquarters south of Peshawar has a cantonment, huge British era fort and noisy Pashtun bazaar. It's terribly hot in summer and not very interesting, though its the junction for a trip west into the hills by narrow gauge railway to the frontier outpost of Thal, 20 km from the Afghan boarder. This 95 km railway is one of several narrow gauge lines built near the Afghan border by the British (others are from Kalabagh to Bannu and Tank, and between Zhob and Bostan, near Quetta). The old trading town of Thal was a frontier garrison, for which the railway was a supply line. The mountain scenery of this place is barren but dramatic. With a permit from Peshawar, you could continue into tribal territory up the Kurram Valley into Parachinar.

The road from Peshawar crosses the low, stony Kohat Pass, studded with ruined watchtowers and a Frontier Constabulary Post.

Some attractions are the rough hewn old quarter and the bazaar, including the Mazar or tomb of a Sufi Holy man named Haji Bahadur Ali Abdullah Shah, west of the gate.

The population of Kohat in 1901 was 30,762, including 12,670 in the cantonment, which is garrisoned by artillery., cavalry and infantry. In the Tirah campaign of 1S97-98 Kohat was the starting-point of Sir William Lockhart's expedition against the Orakzais and Afridis. It is the military base for the southern Afridi frontier as Peshawar is for the northern frontier of the same tribe, and it lies in the heart of the Pathan country.

The Kohat Pass

Kohat Pass is a mountain pass in the North-West Frontier Province of India, connecting Kohat with Peshawar. From the north side the defile commences at 4 m. S.W. of Fort Mackeson, whence it is about 12 or 13 m. to the Kohat entrance. The pass varies from 400 yds. to 13/4 m. in width, and its summit is some 600 to 700 ft. above the plain. It is inhabited by the Adam Khel Afridis, and nearly all British relations with that tribe have been concerned with this pass, which is the only connection between two British districts without crossing and recrossing the Indus. It is now traversed by a cart-road.