The History of Shitak Tribe

Abstract

Shitak tribe of the Pashtoon people, at the moment, resides in district Bannu of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the dust of history, the word Shitak has been used for various pashtoon tribes therefore, historians, especially western scholars, engaged in hot discussion about it but now it is beyond doubt that this tribe is nowadays called Banutsi بنوڅي. In this research article, this very word has been traced and analyzed from various angles. It seems that the term was used for the whole Karlanri tribe of Pashtoon people in the beginning however, with the passage of time it restricted to Banutsi, Dawar and Khattak tribes of the Karlanri branch. But now, the word Shitak encompasses only the former tribe.