Bannu Division

Bannu Division was an administrative division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan, until the reforms of 2000 abolished the third tier of government. The division was created in the 1990s when it was removed from Dera Ismail Khan Division.

At abolition it contained the following districts:

• Bannu District
• Lakki Marwat District

History

Bannu Division was originally Bannu District of Dera Ismail Khan Division, during British rule, the Imperial Gazetteer of India describes the district of Bannu as follows:

One of the four trans-Indus Districts of the North-West Frontier Province, lying between 32° 16'N and 33°5′N and between 70°23'E and 71°16′E, with an area of 1,670 square miles. The District forms a basin drained by two rivers from the hills of Waziristan, the Kurram River and the Gambila or Tochi, which unite at Lakki and flow into the Indus south of Kalabagh. It is shut in on every side by mountains: on the north by those in the Teri tahsil of Kohat District; on the east by the southern extremity of the Maidani Pahar or Khattak Niazi range and the northern spur of the Marwat range, which separate the District from the Isa Khel tahsil of Mianwali District in the Punjab; on the south-east and south the Marwat and Bhittanni ranges divide it from Dera Ismail Khan; and on the west and north-west lie Waziristan and independent territory inhabited by the Bhittanni tribe. These hills nowhere attain any great height. The highest point of the Maidani range at its centre, near the hamlet and valley of Maidan, has an altitude of only 4,256 feet. The Marwat range culminates in Sheikh Budin, the hill which rises abruptly from its south-west end to a height of 4,516 feet, and forms the summer retreat for this District and Dera Ismail Khan. From these ranges numerous spurs jut out into the Bannu plains, but no other hills break their level expanse. Of the rivers the larger is the Kurram, which, entering the District at its north-western corner close to Bannu town, runs at first south-east, then south, and finally winds eastward through the Darra Tang or 'narrow gorge' which lies between the extremities of the Maidani Pahar and Marwat ranges. The Tochi river enters the District about 6 miles south of the Kurram and flows in the same direction, gradually drawing closer to it until their streams unite about 6 or 7 miles west of the Darra Tang.