Makhad (Urdu: مکھڈ ) is a historical

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Attock District Attock District ( Punjabi/Urdu), known as Campbellpur District during British Raj, is a district, located on the Pothohar Plateau, in north western Punjab, Pakistan; created in April 1904. According to 2023 Pakistani census population of Att ...

of northern Punjab 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# ...

. It is one of the last towns separating the Punjab from 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 ...

, and is the place where

Soan River Soan River (; ), also Sawan, or Sohan, is a river in Punjab, Pakistan. It originates from the Murree Hills and joins the Indus River near Makhad. Oldest evidence of human activity in Pakistan has been found in the Soan River valley. The Soan Va ...

falls into the fast-flowing

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

People

People groups of Makhad include the major Paracha clan which are settled through

Gandhara Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...

Attock Attock ( Punjabi, ), formerly known as Campbellpur (Punjabi, ), is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, not far from the country's capital Islamabad. It is the headquarters of the Attock District and is 36th largest city in the Punjab and 61st largest c ...

. There are also descendants of the

Khattak The Khattak () tribe is a prominent Pashtun tribe located in the Khattak territory, which consists of Karak, Nowshera, Kohat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. History Origins Multiple British Raj historians have identified the Khat ...

tribe.

Historic

The area was ruled Ghazi Khan in the

16th century The 16th century began with the Julian calendar, Julian year 1501 (represented by the Roman numerals MDI) and ended with either the Julian or the Gregorian calendar, Gregorian year 1600 (MDC), depending on the reckoning used (the Gregorian calend ...

who founded a ruling dynasty of the area. They were allied to Ahmad Shāh Abdali during the reign of the

Durrani Empire The Durrani Empire, colloquially known as the Afghan Empire, or the Saddozai Kingdom, was an Afghanistan, Afghan empire founded by the Durrani tribe of Pashtuns under Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747, which spanned parts of Central Asia, the Iranian ...

. In the early modern era the ''Khan of Makhad'',

Sher Ahmad Khan Sher Ahmad Khan, known as Khan of Makhad, was the Chief of the Sagri Khattaks. He was also a Jagirdar of Shakardara in Kohat District. The Dynasty was started by Ghazi Khan in the early 16th century during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. G ...

who was the Chief had owned large Jagirs serving as the head of Makhad.
Gazetteer of the Attock District Part A. 1907.
' Volume XXIXA

References

{{Attock District Cities and towns in Attock District