Bajaur District

Bajaur is the north-west corner of Malakand Division, against the Afghan border. Until 2018 it was an agency of FATA. The headquarters is Khar. The 2023 census still lists the whole district as rural: Khar is a large settlement, not a municipal corporation in that table.

PBS 2023: 1,287,960 people, 181,699 households, area about 1,290 km². Literacy 26.26 percent overall — 39.89 percent for men, 12.29 percent for women. More than a third of the counted population is under ten. Pashto is the mother tongue of almost everyone. Those four numbers are the spine of any honest Bajaur page.

Three largest tehsils (not “cities”)

1. Mamund — 358,190 people. North-west tehsil.
2. Salarzai — 316,767 people. North-central. Lowest literacy of the large tehsils in the 2023 table (about 19.9 percent).
3. Khar Bajaur — 301,778 people. Headquarters tehsil, central and south-central. Literacy about 33.3 percent, the highest of the big three.

Nawagai, Utman Khel and Barang are the names that come next. Bar Chamarkand is a tiny western tip (3,574 people on 13 km²).

Seven tehsils (PBS 2023)

• Mamund — 250 km², 358,190, literacy about 24.5 percent.
• Salarzai — 220 km², 316,767, literacy about 19.9 percent.
• Khar Bajaur — 238 km², 301,778, literacy about 33.3 percent. Khar.
• Utman Khel — 194 km², 123,719, literacy about 31.5 percent.
• Nawagai — 216 km², 93,850, literacy about 27.4 percent.
• Barang — 159 km², 90,082, literacy about 23.4 percent.
• Bar Chamarkand — 13 km², 3,574, literacy about 23.8 percent.

Public notes speak of a large number of union councils (one compilation says 127). That is councils, not a printed list of every kally. Named places that already appear on maps and administration papers:

Khar Bajaur: Khar (district headquarters), Inayat Kalay and the bazaar villages of the central bowl.

Mamund: Mamund valley settlements toward the border.

Salarzai: Salarzai valley villages north of Khar.

Nawagai: Nawagai town / tehsil headquarters on the western side.

Utman Khel: Utman Khel villages on the east toward Mohmand.

Barang: Barang on the south-east.

Add a kally name when you live there. Do not invent extra rows to look complete.

Schools and hospitals

Degree colleges in Khar have been expanded since the merger. Many students still leave for Peshawar or Timergara for professional seats. DHQ Bajaur in the headquarters tehsil is the first public hospital. Specialist care often means a road to Peshawar. The female literacy figure — 12.29 percent — is why school pages for Bajaur should talk about girls’ enrolment before they talk about scenery.

What changed in 2018

The 25th Amendment ended the old agency system. Bajaur is now a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa like Buner or Swat. Police, courts and the education department are supposed to run on provincial rules. Building that in practice — teachers posted, a DHQ that holds serious cases, a girls’ high school that stays open — is the live story of the district.

Sources: PBS 2023; KP district administration lists; tehsil tables used in the public record. Last checked August 2026.