Mahsud

The Mahsud or Mahsood or Mehsood or Mehsud (محسود), also spelled Maseed or Masid(ماسيد), is a Karlani Pashtun tribe inhabiting mostly the South Waziristan Agency in the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, now merged within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. A minor number of Maseed are settled in the Logar Province of Afghanistan, especially in Charkh District, Baraki barak and Muhammad Agha, but also in Wardak, Ghazni and Kunduz Provinces. The Maseeds inhabit the center and north of South Waziristan valley, surrounded on three sides by the Darweshkhel Wazirs, and being shut off by the Bettanis Pashtun tribe on the east from the Derajat and Bannu districts. Two Pashtun tribes, the Ahmadzai Wazirs and the Maseeds (Mahsuds), inhabit and dominate South Waziristan. Within the heart of Maseed territory in South Waziristan lies the influential Ormur (Burki) tribe's stronghold of Kaniguram. The Ormurs are considered by other tribes of South Waziristan to be close brethren of the Maseeds due to marital and other ties and the fact that the Ormurs have lived in and controlled Kaniguram for over a thousand years. There are also some Maseeds living in the UAE, Germany and the United Kingdom. The Maseeds usually pronounce their name Māsīd. They are divided into three great clans or subtribes, namely Alizai, Bahlolzai, and Shamankhel. Maseeds usually call these Drei Māsīd, meaning the "Three Maseeds". Each tribe has his own Khan. In the words of Sir Olaf Caroe, who acted as the former governor of the British Indian Frontier, "The Maseed tribe are a people who can never even think of submitting to a foreign power." From 1860 to 1937, the English forces repeatedly attacked Maseed positions, but never got a foothold in the area. The Maseeds originally lived in the centre of Waziristan area of FATA. In the later 14th century, they migrated eastwards, and fell into dispute with the Bannuchi and Khattak tribes settled in the Shawal area. The Maseeds and the Wazirs succeeded in defeating the Khattaks and pushed them northeastwards towards Bannu and Kohat.