Banuchi

The Banuci (Shitak)(Pashto: بنوڅي‎), also Banisi, are a Pashtun tribe inhabiting the Bannu District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and North Waziristan of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, with some members settled in Afghanistan.^[1][2][3] There are many tribes that live in bannu (Wazir, Mehsud, Marwait and Battani) but the word bannosi(i.e belonging to Bannu) is used for people how belong to shitak tribe namely Karini, Surani (Sur), Mirian (miri) and Sam.The Banuchi trace their descent to the Shitak superclan^[4] of the larger Karlani tribe.The shitak tribe arrived to Bannu after fall of ghazna in first half of 13th century, at that time there leader(Malak) was Shah Farid Shitak.

History

The Banuchis originally lived in the Shawal area, which lies partly in the present-day North Waziristan tribal agency of Pakistan and partly in the Paktika Province of Afghanistan. The Banuchi, as well as their cousin tribe the Dawars descend from the Shitak supertribe who were settled in Shawal. In the 14th century, the Wazir tribe of Pashtuns, who were living in Birmal in the west, migrated eastwards to the Shawal area and fell into dispute with the Shitaks (Banuchis and Dawars), and succeeded to oust the Shitaks northeastwards towards the land between the Tochi and Kurram rivers. Eventually, the Banuchi Shitaks migrated to the Bannu District, where the Pashtun tribes of the Mangal and the Honai, as well as the Khattak were already settled. The Banuchis first defeated and drove away the Mangals and the Honais, then gradually pushed the Khattaks northwards to Kohat and Karak, and eventually captured and settled in Bannu District.^[5]

References

1. Bellew, Henry Walter. An Inquiry into the Ethnography of Afghanistan. Woking: The Oriental University Institute, 1891. 110-112.
2. Thorbum, Septimus Smet. Bannú: or Our Afghan frontier. London: Trübner & Co., 1876. 16-17.
3. Bannu; or our Afghan Frontier. S.S. Thorbourne, 1883. Trűbner & Co., London, pp. 3, 5.
4. Bannu; or our Afghan Frontier. S.S. Thorbourne, 1883. Trűbner & Co., London, p. 16.
5. Excerpts from Gazetteer of the Bannu District, 1887. Khyber.ORG. History and Settlement of Bannu: The Bannuchis