PESHAWAR: With a primitive history, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a unique province that witnessed the earliest civilizations including Ghandhara, which required proper projection on digital media to attract foreign investment necessary for rural development.
Khyber Pakthunkhwa, which is the gateway to the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, has a history of about 3000 years and carried a unique geographical location, archaeological heritage and a primitive history that saw the onslaught of invaders who marched into India through the historic Khyber Pass.
Bakhtzada Khan, Senior Research Officer, Archeology Department, told on Friday that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa carried one of the richest histories in the subcontinent where followers of almost all religions came and stayed to achieve their political, trade and business goals.
As a result, various religions including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity took root in Khyberv Pakhtunkhwa for many years before Islam.
He said the discovery of human remains in the Soan Valley in Pakistan’s Punjab province, with evidence of stone and bone tools dating from around (2 million to 90,000 years before present) the Early Paleolithic period, meant that people lived there.
“Excavations of Sangaro cave at Mian Khan village in Mardan district by renowned archaeologists Ahmad Hasan Dhani and Farid Khan in 1963 revealed the presence of human remains of the Middle Paleolithic period (9000 to 27000 BC) in KP.
These people lived in stone caves, meeting their food needs mainly by hunting birds and animals.
The discoveries of primitive rocks, bones and hunting tools dating from the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age (10,000 to 8,600 years before present) during excavations at Khanpur in Haripur district and the Sangaro cave indicated the presence of human life in Swat and Dir where every stone speaks. about their lifestyle, culture, livelihood and civilizations, he informed.
It has been found that humans started making clay and stones to make pots, utensils and other related kitchen utensils during the Neolithic or commonly known as the New Stone Age, which dates back to about 8,000 years ago, as evidenced by the excavations of the historic Mehar Gharh in Baluchistan, Indus . Civilization by Rehman Dheri DI Khan and Sheri Khan Tarkai Swabi.
This strong evidence reinforced that people lived in stone and mud houses in that primeval time. Graves of Aryan invaders have also been discovered in Aligram Swat, Sangota Chitral and Timerga Dir Lower from the Dark Medieval period around 2000 BC.
“Semi-nomadic Aryans entered KP from the Afghan side and settled along the Swat, Gomal, Kurram and Kabul rivers before migrating to India. The Gandhara civilization took root in the province after the Persians conquered it in the 6th century BC and made it one of the provinces of the Achaemenid Empire.”
He said reading and writing in Swat, Dir, Mardan, Charsadda, Peshawar and Malakand, famous for the Ghandara civilization, began as evidence of inscriptions mostly created on stones by Iranians.
In 327 BC, Alexander the Great invaded the subcontinent via the Khyber Pass and faced stiff resistance as he tried to subdue the Youafzai tribesmen in the Swat and Kunar valleys.
Alexander also resided in Taxila where he met a brave young man named Chandragupta Maurya who was an exiled prince from Magadha in eastern India and Maurya decided to create an empire in Alexander’s footsteps.
However, his dream remained unfulfilled after the death of Alexander. Later, Seleucus, Alexander’s general, established a government in the Indian territories. The Indo-Greeks, a group of about 39 kings and queens, laid the foundation of their own culture and introduced the Greek art style that still existed in KP apart from the propagated Buddhism.
In 1001 AD, Mahmud Ghaznavi defeated Jayapala, the last Hindu Shahi king, and subsequently Islam spread to the subcontinent including KP.
In 1505, Zaheeruddin Babar, the founder of the Mughal Empire, entered the subcontinent through the Khyber Pass and occupied the present-day districts of Kohat, Bannu, before defeating the last Lodhi king and becoming the Emperor of Delhi.
After uniting the Pathans, he said Babar paved the way for Mughal rule over KP until the 18th century and was succeeded by Humayun after his demise. Later, Sher Shah Suri, a Pathan commander, took control of the region from him. However, Humayun Khan regained the throne after fifteen years and was succeeded by his son Akbar.
He said that Khushal Khan Khattak, who formed an alliance with the Mughals during the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan, was against the Yusufzais. However, King Shah Jahan appointed Khushal Khattak as a tribal chief to assist him.
The Khattaks severed ties with the Mughal Empire during the reign of King Aurangzeb due to a conflict with the Mughal governor over the collection of tolls. After Aurangzeb’s death in 1707, the Mughal Empire split into rival kingdoms, and Nadir Shah, the Persian ruler, gained control of the province with the support of local Pathan commanders.
Bakhtzada said that Ahmad Shah Abdali launched several campaigns from Peshawar to many places throughout India.
However, Abdali’s rule (1747–1772) was temporarily interrupted by an invasion by the Marathas in the early 1750s, but he managed to regain control of KP in 1761. Later, the province came under the control of the Sikhs in 1818 under the command of Maharaja Ranjit Singh after taking over Peshawar in 1923.
He said that Sayyid Ahmad Shah stood against the Sikhs. he was, however, defeated at Balakot due to lack of unity among the Pathans tribes. After the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839, the Sikhs fought among themselves and eventually the British established its rule in KP in 1849 under the guise of the East India Company.
He said the Wazir of Waziristan, Mirza Ali Khan, spearheaded the civil disobedience movement against the British in 1936 but failed. Khilafat and Hijra movements also took place in the region but were not successful.
Another popular freedom movement also called non-violent movement was started by freedom fighter Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his brother Dr. Khan Sahib and later KP gained self-government in 1937.
“The history of Pakistan would not be complete without mentioning the exceptional role of the people of KP and the students of Islamia College Peshawar during the Pakistan Movement,” said Muhammad Younas Khan, Chairman, Department of Pakistan Studies while talking to APP.
The people of KP gave a warm welcome to Father of the Nation Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and voted for the All India Muslim League when he came here in 1946, he added.
“The Muslim League secured the maximum number of seats in the 1946 elections and after this historic victory, no one could stop the movement for the independence of Pakistan from this province,” he added.
In a referendum in July 1947, he declared that the Muslim League had achieved a landslide victory in the KP by securing
