Banuchi

The Banuchi (بنوچي ),Banisi (بانيسي), also Banosi (بنوڅي) Bannuzai/Banizai or Banuchi Afghans are a Pashtun/Afghan tribe which has the reputation of being one of the most warlike tribe amongst the Pashtun people. They inhabit the Bannu District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, North Waziristan and Kurram of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, with some members settled in Afghanistan. The Banuchis are descentants from the Shitak superclan of the larger Karlani tribe. 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 Hani, as well as the Khattak were already settled. The Banuchis first defeated and drove away the Mangals and the Hanis, then gradually pushed the Khattaks northwards to Kohat and Karak, and eventually captured and settled in Bannu District. As soon as their conquest were secured the new colonist divided out the country equally amongst them, the credit for this division (wesh) goes to their spiritual guide "Pir" of the Banuchi(Shitak) tribe Sheikh Mohammad Rohani and his family (Saadats of Bannu). During Khilji rule in India the newly inhabited Banuchis were mostly at peace with fellow Pashtuns. It is said that while attacking Delhi Tamerlane passed through Banuchi lands with no resistance with some might even have accompanied him. Mughal King Babur invaded Bannu in 1505 and brutally massacred Banuchis (Kevis) who physically resisted him.