BANNU. is
said to
91
have utterly demolished the ancient Hindu strongholds, For upwards of a century
leaving no stone standing upon another.
afterwards, the country appears to have lain waste,
Bannu hills
—
till
at length the
was gradually colonized by immigrants from the western the Bannuwdls or Bannuchi's, who still remain, and the Nidzais, valley
who subsequently gave Marwats
is
place to
Marwats.
the
The
placed in the reign of Akbar.
expelled, spread across the Khatak-Niazai
The advent Niazais,
of the
whom
they
and colonized the
Hills,
upon both banks of the Indus. The cis-Indus branch, namely the Sarhang, did not finally obtain their present possessions till 150 years later, when Ahmad Shah Durani broke the power of the dominant Ghakkars. The Marwats still hold the southern portion of plain country
the
Bannu
At
valley.
this time,
and
for
two centuries
later,
the country paid a nominal
In 1738 it was conquered by Nadir completely laid the country waste. Ahmad Shah Durani
allegiance to the Delhi Emperors.
who
Shah,
subsequently led his army three or four times through the levying what he could by
way of
Bannu
valley,
on each occasion.
So stubborn, however, was the opposition of the inhabitants, that neither conqueror made any attempt to establish a permanent government. In 1838 the In the cis-Indus portion of the valley passed by cession to the Sikhs. District, Sikh rule had been already established under Ranjit Singh, by annexation from the Ghakkars of Rawal Pindi, who at a still earlier date had suffered defeat at the hands of his father and other Sikh Ranjit Singh now lost no time in attempting to occupy his chieftains. new territory. Elsewhere in the District he had met with little opposition but in the Bannu valley he was forced, after several efforts, to fall back upon the expedient of his predecessors, and to content himself with the periodical despatch of a force to levy what he was pleased to term arrears of revenue in reality to devastate the country, and tribute
‘
’
carry off whatever booty could be secured.
Such was the the District was
when, after the death of Ranjit Singh, brought under British influence. In the winter
state of affairs first
months of 1847-48, Lieutenant (afterwards
Herbert) Edwardes was
Sir
under the Council of accompanied by a Sikh army under General Van Cortlandt. Arrived in Bannu, he found a large portion of the District practically independent. In the Bannu valley every village was a fort, and frequently at war with its neighbours, while the.Wazi'ri tribes of the
despatched to the frontier as political
Regency
frontier
officer
at Lahore,
were ever seeking opportunities for aggression.
Within a few
months, Edwardes reduced the country to order, effecting a peaceful revolution by the force of his
exchange of a single
made
shot.
for the collection of
The
personal character, and without the forts
were levelled
a regular revenue
arrangements were
and so
effectual
were his
