Attock District - Pathans or Pashtuns - Chhachh Pathans

Chhachh Pathans

The Attock Pathans are found in two parts of the tehsil, those of Sarwala, and those of Chhachh. The Chhachh Pathans have very little in common with the Sagri Khattaks, as they are separated by the Kala Chita mountains.The Chhachhies are also known as Chhachi (Pashtun). The Chhachh have Hindko and pushto speaking community, and have much in common with the Pashtun tribes settled in the neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Chhachh have Pukhtun culture and peoples are following Pashtunwali code of conduct strictly like in NWFP. Mostly Pathans in Chhachh came with Ghaznavi from Afghanistan.

The largest clan are the Alizai, who include the Tahirkheli, one of three main septs of the Alizai. The Tahirkheli inhabit villages along the Haro river. The other tribe along the Haro are the Sadozai, and both they and the Alizai, are branches of the Durrani-Tareen tribe. In addition, a very sizeable number of clans and septs of the great Yusufzai tribe are aso found here.

The Attock District Gazetteer gives the following description regarding Pathan settlement in the district: The connection of Pathans with the tahsil is not very ancient. The earliest comers may have been the Lodhis, who are a section of the Ghilzai nation, and accompanied Mahmud Ghaznavi as mercenaries on his invasions of India. Their numbers are inconsiderable. Next after a long interval came the Dilazak who were gradually driven from the Safed Koh by the Yousafzai. About the end of the 16th Century they crossed the river, and found the Chhachh, then a swamp being slowly recovered from the Indus, in possession of the Gujjars. Apparently they never settled down and in consequence of the turmoil caused by their constant attempt to recover Mardan illaqa of Peshawar from the Yousafzais, were finally deported by Jahangir and scattered over the India Peninsula. "A Gazetteer of Attock District 1929 Part A page 91}} The great Pathan invasion of the Chhachh took place much latter. About the end of the 17th Century the Khattaks, pushing up from Kohat at the south,began to press on the flanks of the Yousafzai between Attock and Peshawer of which they had been put in charge. At the same time too the Gujars of Hazara has summoned the Yousafzais across the river to help against the Tareen, a tribe of original Afghans of Jewish and Arab origin, who had fallen on the Haripur plain. Later in the middle of the 18th Century the Piro Khels who are Afridis and Pathans proper, came with Nadir Shah perhaps from Persia, and remained behind when he returned.By the end of the 18th Century Dilazaks, Tareens, Yousafzais and Afridis had settled down in the Tahsil, with the Yousafzai numerically immensely superior. Since then no immigration has taken place. The chief accretion to Pathan strength has been that of the Akhund Khel. Akhund is the title given to any chief of special sanctity, and Akhundzada is the title of his descendants. Many Akhund Khel are by origin Gujar and Awan., perform no priestly functions, and live like ordinary Pathans. The Tahirkheli Pathans who inhabit the north-east of the Tahsil below the main wall of the Gandgarh Hills and along the line of the Haro by tradition and sentiment have little to with Attock. They live or own land in the Hazara District, and many are Jagirdars.}}

The Chhachh ilaqa is almost entirely held by the Pathans, as is the Nala estates, along the Haro river valey. The Attock Pathans were the earliest group of this reigon to start emigrating to Europe and North America.There are now large communities of Chhachh Pathan settled in British cities, such as Bradford, Birmingham and Manchester