Dilazak

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The Dilazak were an Afghan Pashtun tribe. They descended into the valley of Peshawar, now in Pakistan in Smanyid's dynasty from the Suleman Range, between 750 and 850.

They were the first of all Afghans and were Muslims by that time. They expelled or subdued local people of the Swati, Degan and Tirahi castes. By the time of Mehmood Ghaznavi, they had reached the Sind River (also called Abaseen, Neelaab). They participated in Mehmood Ghaznavi's campaigns in large numbers under their leader Malik Yahya.

Later they extended up to present day Hassan Abdal (near Taxila) and towards the north up to Abbottabad. Around 1520, another Afghan tribe, the Yusufzai, was expelled from Kabul, Afghanistan, by the uncle of Mughal Emperor Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur, Mirza Ulugh Beg. The Yusufzais migrated to the Peshawar valley and sought help from the Dilazak.

Later on the relationship between the two tribes deteriorated and a long war ensued. Ultimately the Yousafzi along with some other tribes (including the Utmanzi, related to the Dilazak) were able to push the Dilazak east of Sindh River under their leader Malik Ahmed Khan, after 20 years.

The story of the Dilazak did not end here. The Mughals had fluctuating relations with the Afghans. The Dilazak were on the eastern side of the Sind River and thus totally accessible to a properly trained Mughal Army. Around 1607, Mughal Emperor Jahangir (Muhammad Saleem) once visiting Kabul in Afghanistan, left his large army under the command of Zaffar Khan Koka, son of Zain Khan Koka, and ordered him to wipe out the Dilazak and arrest the leaders of the Khattar tribe. Zain Khan Koka complied and deported one hundred thousand families of the Dilazak to Lahore for dispersal in India.

Only a few families of the Dilazak survived. These families still exist. Today they are found in the districts Abbottabad, Haripur, Charsadda, Swat, Peshawar, of which all are in North-West Frontier Province, and Attock, in the Punjab Province. They are in the districts Shahjehan Pur and also in village Shahjahanpur District (Meerut), on Meerut Garh Road (Uttar Pradesh), Jalandhar (Indian Punjab), Bari Town (Rajasthan) and Dilazi and other villages in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and some other regions of India.