Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/101

 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