Utmanzai (Wazir)

The Utmanzai are one of the two sections of the Darwesh Khel Wazirs, the other being the Ahmadzai. Ibbetson says both descend from Musa Darwesh. Bellew gives Utman as one of Musa's two divisions, reckons it at 18,000 families in 1891, and names three clans: Mahmud, Ibrahim and Wali, each with long lists of sections.

The 1925 General Staff history of the Waziristan campaign calls them the Utmanzai or Tochi Wazirs. The Dictionary of the Pathan Tribes of 1910 places them on the Kurram river, the Kaitu, the Tochi, the Khaisora and Shawal and counts 15,000 fighting men. Ibbetson says they live toward the south-west corner of Bannu and in the Kurram, Kaitu, Tochi and Khaisora valleys, Shawal and Birmal. Caroe has them as neighbours of the Daur around the Tochi and towards the Kurram. He notes that his own index calls the name correctly Usmanzai.

Ibbetson lists the sub-sections as Mohmit Khel, Madda Khel, Kabul Khel, Manzar Khel, Tori Khel, Bakka Khel and Jani Khel. He ranks the Tori Khel as foremost among them in fighting, and also names the Saifali of the Kabul Khel and the Hassan Khel of the Mohmit Khel. The Tochi Wazirs, in the 1925 account, spend summer in the higher hills and move to lower grazing in winter.^1,2,4–6

Based on: Colonial records · Modern scholarship

In June 1897 a British political officer went with an escort to Maizar, a Madda Khel village in the upper Tochi, to choose a site for a levy post. The party was first hospitably received and then attacked. Caroe says all the officers were killed or wounded and that the troops made a fine retirement. The Imperial Gazetteer, which calls the attack treacherous, counts five British officers and men killed, and the 1925 history gives over 50 casualties. The Wazirs held aloof from the wider risings of 1897 and 1898, and Caroe thinks the early start in the Tochi, before Tirah rose, kept the rising from spreading south.

In the 1919 to 1920 campaign, the 1925 history records, the Tochi Wazir jirga met the force commander at Datta Khel and accepted the Government's terms without reservation, except for the Madda Khel and two small Kaitu sub-tribes. The Madda Khel villages were bombed the next day, and their maliks submitted that evening. Caroe adds that the peace which ended the Mahsud fighting was made by negotiation with the Utmanzai Wazirs and led to the occupation of Razmak.^3,5,6

Based on: Colonial records · Modern scholarship

In 1936 Mirza Ali Khan, the Faqir of Ipi, raised a lashkar in Tori Khel country after the Islam Bibi case, in which a magistrate gave a Hindu girl who had become Muslim back to her family. Matthews says many Wazirs concluded that British law favoured Hindus. In November 1936 two British columns entered Tori Khel country on what the official history called a peaceful demonstration and met stiff resistance. By mid-January 1937 the Tori Khel had agreed to stop fighting, though the Faqir came out again that spring. Alan Warren, quoted by Matthews, says the Faqir gave tribal wishes for autonomy an active religious purpose. Arthur Swinson, also quoted, calls him brutal and treacherous even by Pathan standards.^5,7

Based on: Modern scholarship