Agror
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The Agror valley lies in on the frontier of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, in the Mansehra district of Hazara Division. It consists of three mountain glens, 10 mi (16 km) in length and 6 mi (10 km) in breadth, located between and .
[edit] Environment
The lower portions of the Agror valley are heavily cultivated, thickly dotted with villages, hamlets, and groves, and surrounded by dark pine-clad heights, whose depressions occasionally disclose the snowy peaks of the main range in the distance. These valleys are alike in their nature; they have no strictly level spaces, but consist rather of terraced flats which descend from the hills. Water is abundant year round, and crops seldom fail.
[edit] Population
The dominating Tribes consists of Swatis, Yousafzais with Gujars and Tanolis. Islam is the almost universal creed. Agror is the ancient Atyugrapura of the Rdjatarangini and the 'IOcyovpos town in Ovapora mentioned by Ptolemy. From the time of Timur until the beginning of the eighteenth century the Agror valley was held by a family of Karlugh Turks. These were expelled in 1703 by a Saiyid named Jalal Baba, with his bigoted Swati lashker and the conquered country was divided among the Swatis, one Ahmad Sad-ud-din, who died in 1783, rising to the position of Khan of Agror.
[edit] History
The Nawab of Amb took the valley in 1834, but in 1841 it was restored by the Sikhs to Ata Muhammad, a descendant of Sad-ud-din. At annexation Ata Muhammad was recognized as chief of Agror, and the defence and management of this part of the frontier was originally left to him; but the arrangement did not work satisfactorily. An expedition had to be sent in 1852 to avenge the murder of two officers of the Salt department; and in consequence of the unsatisfactory attitude of the chief and of repeated complaints by the cultivators, it was resolved in 1868 to place a police station in Agror and to bring the valley more directly under the administration of Government. This incensed the Khan of Agror, at whose instigation the newly-built police station was burnt by a raid of the Black Mountain of Hazara tribes, including Swatis, Hassanzais, Chagarzais etc. An expedition was dispatched, and Ata Muhammad Khan was deported to Lahore for a time, but in 1870 reinstated in his chieftainship. His son and successor, Ali Gauhar, was removed from the valley in 1888 in consequence of his abetting raids into British territory. In order to maintain the peace of the border, expeditions were dispatched against the Black Mountain tribes in 1888, 1891, and 1892; and there has since been no disturbance. The Agror Valley Regulation (1891) declared the rights of the Khan of Agror to be forfeit to Government.
The land revenue of the valley was assessed by the Sikhs at Rs. 1,515. This demand was continued on annexation and raised to Rs. 3,315 in 1853 and Rs. 4,000 at the regular settlement, in which the engagement was made with the Khan. The settlement was revised in 1901.
The sole manufacture of the valley is cotton cloth, and trade is purely local, except for a small export of grain. The chief place in the valley is the village of Oghi, the head-quarters of the Hazara border military police.
