Kohat Cantonment

Kohat Cantonment is one of the eight cantonments in the Peshawar region of Pakistan.[2] It is located adjacent to Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Kohat Cantonment
Cantonment
Country Pakistan
Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
DistrictKohat
TehsilKohat
Population
 • Total36,935
Time zoneUTC+5 (PST)

History

Kohat was annexed by the British in 1849 from the Sikhs, along with the rest of Punjab. The British made Kohat an Army Divisional Headquarters,[3] and the military cantonment still exists today. Reports[4] from 1882 describe the strength of the Kohat garrison to be nearly 3,000, consisting of three regiments of native infantry, half a regiment of cavalry, a mountain battery, and a garrison battery for the fort. All these troops belonged to the Panjab Frontier Force.

The Kohat Cantonment is also the place where the battle between the Sikh Amry led by Maharaja Ranjit Singh defeated the Afghan army in 1823.

Raids on British Cantonments

Kohat is also recorded in history books for two incidents involving attacks on British Cantonments by local raiders. In November 1920, raiders attacked the house of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Howard Foulkes[5][6] who was shot dead. His wife was dragged upto some distance, but she survived. She later died in December 1920 of wounds from injuries. His house, which was located in Kohat Cantonment was also looted. Col. Foulkes was a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Another incident occurred in 1923, where the house of Major Ellis was attacked, where his wife was murdered and his daughter was kidnaped (later she was recovered).[7][8]

Railway Station

It also has a Kohat Cannt Railway Station served by Pakistan Railways. The railway station too goes to the British era, with a famous story about the kidnapping of the railway stationmaster.[9] and it has had a chequered history of being shut down and reopened. The broad gauge railway line[10] connected Kohat to Rawalpindi. The Kohat-Rawalpindi train was relaunched in 2018.[11]

References
  1. "POPULATION AND HOUSEHOLD DETAIL FROM BLOCK TO DISTRICT LEVEL: KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA (KOHAT DISTRICT)" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. 2018-01-03. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-04-24. Retrieved 2018-04-24.
  2. "Military Lands and Cantonment Department". Ministry of Defence, Pakistan. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  3. "General view of the cantonment including the church, Kohat". British Library. British Library. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  4. Tucker, Henry St. George (1884). Report on the Settlement of the Kohat District in the Panjab. Calcutta Central Press. p. 210.
  5. "Plarr's Lives of the Fellows". Royal College of Surgeons. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  6. "Lietenant ColonelT H Foulkes". War Memorials Register. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  7. "The place where Molly lived". The Nation, Pakistan. 9 June 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  8. "Rescue of Mollie Ellis". The Friday Times. 5 January 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  9. Siddiqui, Rahael Ahmad (29 March 2015). "The story of the stationmaster's kidnapping". The News, Pakistan. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  10. Khan, Omar Mukhtar (11 December 2019). "Pakistan's abandoned North Western Railway stations echo a forgotten past". The Dawn. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  11. "Kohat Express to be relaunched today". The Nation, Pakistan. 24 January 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2020.


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