Malakand District

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Malakand District" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Malakand ضلع ملاکنڈ ملاکنډ ولسوالۍ‎
District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Top: View from top of Malakand Pass Bottom: River Swat near Jalawanan
Malakand District (red) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Country	Pakistan
Province	Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Division	Malakand
Headquarters	Batkhela
Government
• Type	District Administration
• Deputy Commissioner	Shahid Khan Mohmand
• District Police Officer	N/A
• District Health Officer	N/A
Area
• Total	952 km2 (368 sq mi)
Population  (2017)[1]
• Total	717,806
• Density	750/km2 (2,000/sq mi)
• Urban	67,686
• Rural	650,120
Time zone	UTC+5 (PST)
Number of Tehsils	2
Main language	Pashto (98.2%)[2]
Website	malakand.kp.gov.pk

Malakand District (Pashto: ملاکنډ ولسوالۍ, Urdu: ضلع ملاکنڈ) is a district in the Malakand Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Until 1970, it was a part of the Malakand Protected Area of the erstwhile Provincially Administered Tribal Area(PATA) of Pakistan. In 1970, the district became part of the Malakand Division.^{[citation needed]}

Malakand District lies at a strategically important position as it acts as a gateway to the Bajaur, Lower Dir, Swat and Bunair districts.^{[citation needed]} It is surrounded by mountains that were covered with the varieties of trees, though they have a barren appearance nowadays. The Malakand Pass which connects Mardan to Swat and Dir is located near a region of Malakand called Dargai, a site where the local Pushtun tribes fought two fierce battles with the Imperial British Army in 1895 and 1897 (Siege of Malakand).^[3][4]

The Swat River flows downwards through the district towards the Charsadda District where it falls into the Kabul River. Malakand District is bounded in the north by the Lower Dir District, in the east by the Swat District, in the west by Mohmand and Bajaur districts and in the southeast and southwest by the Mardan and Charsadda districts respectively. The area of Malakand protected area is 952 km².^{[citation needed]}