Shangla District (, ) is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

in Malakand Division of

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 ...

, Pakistan. The district's headquarters are located at Alpuri, while the largest city and commercial center is Besham. The district was established in 1995, having previously been a subdivision of

Swat District Swat District (), also known as the Swat Valley, is a Districts of Pakistan, district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Known for its stunning natural beauty, the district is a popular tourist destination. With a populati ...

. The total area of the district is 1,586 square kilometers. Shangla comprises five subdivisions, Alpuri, Puran,

Chakesar Chakesar is a town and tehsil of the Shangla District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is situated about 6 km in the north-west on the right bank of the Indus River. Chakesar was given the status of Tehsi ...

, Martung and Besham tehsils. Shangla is famous for its touring spot, Yakhtangay Gunangar is also a historical village.

Location

The district is bounded in the north by Kohistan District, in the east by

Battagram District Battagram (, ) is a tribal Districts of Pakistan, district in Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. The headquarter is Battagram, which is about 75 km from Mansehra, Mansehra city. It was part of historic Yaghistan (In ...

and

Torghar District Torghar District (, ) formerly known as Kala Dhaka (, English: Black Mountain) is a district in the Hazara Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It was officially separated from Mansehra District in 2011 under Article 246 of ...

, in the west by

, and in the south by

Buner District Buner District (, ) is a district in the Malakand Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Before receiving the status of a district in 1991, it was a tehsil within Swat District. Buner's elevation starts at 1200 ft in the S ...

Administrative divisions

History

Shangla was a sub-division of the Swat district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan until it was granted the status of a separate district in 1995. This was primarily due to the efforts of Haji Badi uz Zaman, a political leader and community figure who was assassinated in 1994, and his son, Afsar ul Mulk. There are relics of the ancient Greek period at Pirsar,

and Gunangar. It is believed that

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

camped at Pirsar for a few days. There are also relics of the Hindu Shahi in Olandar-Ajmair. A number of

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

sculptures are also found in Shangla district which indicate that Shangla was also a part of the previous Buddhist civilization. The district was hit by the 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake in which more than 18 people were killed.

Geography

Shangla district consists of small valleys and is situated between the hillocks and is surrounded by high mountains full of forests comprising Pindrow Fir, Morinda Spruce,

Blue Pine ''Pinus wallichiana'' is a pinophyta, coniferous evergreen tree native to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains, from eastern Afghanistan east across northern Pakistan and north west India to Yunnan in southwest China. It grows in mou ...

(Kail), Chir Pine and

Deodar Cedar ''Cedrus deodara'', the deodar cedar, Himalayan cedar, or deodar, is a species of Cedrus, cedar native to the Himalayas. Description It is a large evergreen coniferous tree reaching tall, exceptionally with a trunk up to in diameter. It has a ...

trees. The average elevation of the district is 2000 to 3000 meters above sea level. The highest point (3,440 m) is near Kuz Ganrshal in the north of the district. Shangla District is connected to the

by the Shangla Pass.

Demographics

As of the 2023 census, Shangla district has 125,540 households and a population of 891,252. The district has a sex ratio of 106.65 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 33.74%: 48.82% for males and 17.82% for females. 307,444 (34.51% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. The entire population lives in rural areas. 2,410 (0.27%) people in the district are from religious minorities, mainly Christians.

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 ...

was the predominant language, spoken by 95.40% of the population. 1.03% of the population spoke

Kohistani languages The Kohistani languages are a group of several Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 20 ...

. The main tribe of Shangla is

Yusufzai The Yusufzai or Yousafzai (, ), also referred to as the Esapzai (, ), or Yusufzai Afghans historically, are one of the largest tribes of Pashtuns. They are natively based in the northern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ( Malakand, Dir, Swat, Shangl ...

, that contribute more than half of the district population, the dense and well populated area of Shangla is Alpuri tehsil (Gwarband) that contributes to more than 253000+ of the district population. Shangla is one of the unique districts of Pakistan that contains more than 80% of forest land. The youngest noble laurate

Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai (; , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997) is a Pakistani female education activist, film and television producer, and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, ...

's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was born in Shangla, however, she herself was born in Mingora, Swat.

Education

In November 2022, the Chief Minister of

, Mahmood Khan, inaugurated University of Shangla. The university was earlier a campus of University of Swat.

National and provincial assembly

This district is represented by one elected MNA (Member of National Assembly) in Pakistan National Assembly. Its constituency is NA-31.

Since 2002: NA-11 (Shangla)

2024 Amir muqam pakistan muslim league N

Provincial Assembly

Animal diversity

Shangla is highly diverse in terms of animal fauna. Various studies have been carried out for documentation of Animal fauna in Shangla. Birds A study was carried out by Ahmad et al (2023) and reported 38 birds species from Chakesar Valley. Insect In recent research article, new distribution record for ''Idricerus decrepitus'' from Chakesar Shangla. It was a provincial record for the said species. Fish fauna

References

Bibliography

* {{Coord missing, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa