About Malakand Division

• Malakand Division is comprising 09 districts i.e. Swat, Shangla, Buner, Malakand, Dir Upper & Lower, Chitral Upper & Lower and Bajaur Tribal District with a total area of 32007 Kms having population of 10 million (Census 2023). Formerly, the districts were princely states of Swat, Dir, Chitral and Malakand Protected Area (Malakand Agency). The States were merged in Pakistan by the Government of Pakistan in 1969 and were declared as Malakand Division. The area consists of snow-capped mountains, singing rivers, fruits laden orchards, flower decked slops and green meadows which attract tourists both at national as well as international level.
• It lies in the north of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa touching Karakuram Highway at Besham, Afghan border with Dir & Chitral and the strategic Wakhan strip is bordering Chitral.
• The mentioning of this area is found in the ancient Greek accounts & by other historians. It was a center of Aryan and later on rich Ghandhara civilizations before the Muslim rulers.
• Alexander the Great, king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia passed through this route to India in 327 B.C, attacking the biggest cities of the area, Massaga (Chakdara), Bazira (Barikot) & Ora (Odigram) and faced tough resistance. However, he could not survive for longer.
• This area also witnessed the invasion of Sakas(nomadic Iranian people), Kushans (syncretic empire) & white Huns (a race of largely nomadic peoples who were a part of the Hunnic tribes of Central Asia), this region also remained under the influence of Ashoka of Maurian dynasty. The flourishing of Buddhism had genesis in the reign of Ashoka as he adopted Buddhism in the later part of his life.
• The area then had more than 1400 monasteries and 18000 monks in different parts and was a prominent center of Ghandhara civilization.