KHATAK HILLS, a range or series of ranges in the Kohat and Peshawur districts, Panjab, so called from an Afghan tribe who inhabit them. They bound Peshawur district to the south, and extend from the Safed Koh system to the Indus. Between the plain of Peshawur and the Salt Range at Kalabagh lies the country of the Khatak and Sag,ree Afghans. The Khatak are divided into the chiefships of Akora and Teri. Akora lies east of the plain of Peshawur, on the river of Kabul. The Khatak of Akora live in the hills. The southern division is under the chief of Teri, who is able to assert his inde pendence. Part of the Kohat district consists of the Khatak country, and in the Kohat valley they are the predominating tribe. They hold the Khusha]gurh pass, leading from the Indus into Kohat, and offering the easiest entrance to the valley. On the whole, the Khatak have been loyal subjects. They are good soldiers, and can muster 12,000 fighting men. Many of them are in the British service. They are considered the best conducted and most respectable tribe on this frontier. The Teri Toi river divides the Khatak Hills into two main groups, the southern of which contains the famous salt mines of Narri, Bahadur Khel, and Kharrak, while the mines of Malgin and Jatta lie among the spurs of the northern range. The peaks of the south - eastern group seldom attain a height exceeding 3000 feet ; but Swanai Sir, in the opposite range, has an elevation of 4785 feet above sea-level. The salt, which gives these mountains their chief importance, occurs as a solid rock, uncovered and exposed in many places, so as to be quarried rather than mined. The deposit may probably rank as one of the largest in the world. The total quantity of salt extracted from the five mines in 1870-71 amounted to 407,098 maunds, and the duty realized to £8556. The Sikhs never managed these mines at all. They farmed them out to some local chief, and left him to collect what he could. Under British rule, the control and working of the mines is in the hands of Government officers. The salt is ex cavated and sold at the mine at a fixed duty of two, three, and four annas per maund of 80 lbs., covering all expenses. The first Khatak of note and influence regarding whom there is any information, is Akore, the founder of Akora, lying one march on the Peshawur side of Attock. The Khatak tribe is said to trace its
descent from the Kurtani, from whom also the Orakzai of Thyruh, the Afridi, Bungush, Mob mund, Khuleel, and Daudzai claim descent. The Kurtani were called also Burdurani, in contra distinction to the Daurani, now divided into ' Popalzai, Bamizai, Saddozai, Nurzai, Alikuzai, Yusufzai, Alizai, and Barakzai (divided into Mu hammadzai and Hassanzai). Akore came from Shuwal, near the Waziri country, to a place called at that time Hassan Tungi, and now known as near to Dursummund, an independent village of Upper Miranzai, which lies between llingu and Ile is said to have been accompanied by 3000 of his relations and friends, and 8000 other men of Shuwal. At that time Kohat and Teri were occupied by the Orakzai. Akore with his adventurers drove the Orakzai from Teri, and held that country, their opponents retiring on Kohat, at which place the Bungush, rising on them and joining the Khatak, they were driven fairly out of the country to Thyruh. Tuppee, a village lying three miles S.E. of Kohat, and on the Kalabagh road, is pointed out as the spot where the engagement took place between the Khatak and Bungush on one side, and the Orakzai on the other ; after the battle, the con querors divided the country, making a range of hills which divides Guddukheil and Luchee the boundary between the Khatak and Bungush. This range still forms the boundary between the two tribes. The Khatak country extended to Resec, a village near to and above Mukhnd, on the Trans-Indus side. There were then two divisions of the tribe, Turi and Buluk. On the country being divided, Chountra, Dnllin, and Durrah fell to the former, and from Buluk sprung two branches, Khurrum and Senee. Joullaee, Ghurzundai, and Unjukhulu lie in one valley, and belong to Khurrum, and the Senee branch passes from Teri to Purshai. Akore and his followers having entered the country as adventurers, left their wives and families at Kurbagha, and had difficulty afterwards in bringing them to rejoin them in their new country.—Selections from the Public Correspondence, p. 62 ; Papers, East Indies, Kabul and Afghanistan, 1859, p. 21 ; Burnes' Cabool, p. 105 ; Records, Government of India, No. 11 ; Imp. Car.