Alizai/Dawar () is a Karlani

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghans until 1964 after the ...

tribe mostly inhabiting

North Waziristan North Waziristan District (, ) is a Districts of Pakistan, district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is the northern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering . The capital ...

, with some settled in the

Bannu District Bannu District (, ) is a district in the Bannu Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Its status as a district was formally recorded in 1861 during the British Raj. This district constitutes one of the 26 districts that coll ...

of the

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

province in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. The Dawaris inhabit the

Tochi Valley The Tochi Valley, also known as Dawar (from Middle-Persian, Middle Iranic dātbar, meaning "Justice-giver"), is a fertile area located in the North Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. 2002. ''T ...

and speak the Dawari dialect of

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

. Dawar/Alizai is a descendant of a greater Shitak tribe and a cousin tribe of Wazir/ Bannuzai and Tani/Taniwal.

History

The Dawars originally lived in the Shawal area, which lies partly in the present-day North Waziristan tribal agency of

and partly in the

Paktika Province Paktika (Pashto: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000 residents, who are mostly ethnic Pashtuns but sma ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. The Dawars are descended from the Shitak supertribe of the Pashtuns. Dawars are descend from the Shitaks. In the 14th century, the Wazirs another Pashtun tribe, who were living in Birmal in the west, migrated eastwards to the Shawal area and fell into dispute with the Shitaks (Dawar and Banuchi's) and succeeded to oust the Shitaks northeastwards. Eventually, the Dawari Shitaks settled in the Tochi Valley in the modern-day North Wazisitan. At the beginning of the twentieth century the tribe had some 5,200 fighting men. Dawari, or usually Alizai along with Waziris and other pashtun tribes upraises caused in southern and south west zone deteriorating of Kabul government and revolutions in the country, in Abdalee (Durrani) Empire they had the most powerful participation in their success and army contribution. Their location along the fertile land meant they were prone to fevers and other ravaging diseases that are bred in the wet sodden lands of the Tochi Valley, lying at the bottom of a deep depression exposed to the burning rays of the sun. The effects of these ailments may be clearly traced in the drawn or bloated features and the shrunken or swollen limbs of nearly every Dawari that has passed middle life. Mostly they have been at war in the past with their neighbouring Wazir tribe, mostly over land and blood feuds.

Trouble with the British Raj

In March of 1872, Dawar tribesmen refused to pay a fine to the British and they skirmished with Brigadier-General C.P. Keyes of the

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

at the

.National Army Museum (UK) -
The North-West Frontier
'

Location

Although they are surrounded on all four sides by a Waziri population they bear little resemblance to the Waziris. They are an agricultural people whilst the Waziris are a pastoral race, and they are much richer than their neighbours. They thrive on a rich sedimentary soil copiously irrigated in the midst of a country where cultivable land of any kind is scarce and water in general hardly to be obtained.

Notable Dawars

* Mohsin Dawar * Noor Islam Dawar *

Tahir Dawar Mohammad Tahir Khan Dawar (; ) was a Pakistani police officer who was abducted from Islamabad on 26 October 2018 and then tortured and killed. His body was found on 13 November 2018 by the locals in the Dur Baba District of Nangarhar Province, ...

References

{{Pashtun tribes Karlani Pashtun tribes Pashto-language surnames Pakistani names