Kuza Bandai is a small village in Swat Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is known for its natural beauty and lying in an area crossed by Alexander the Great during his invasion. Later, after the Lal Masjid massacre, Kuza Bandai and Bara Bandai became known as sympathetic to the Taliban movement. The village consists of Yusufzai Pakhtun tribes. It is one of the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) of Pakistan. The village contains a small series of mountains and a jungle, residential area starting from meadows of mountains to the fields, a village market, vast land for crops, number of springs and canals, and a part of the Swat river.
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Map of Kuza Bandai, Pakistan
Name
The village was named by Yusufzai Pakhtuns after they evacuated the old Swatis from Swat, and means "lower meadow". The neighbouring village on the right to Kuza Bandai is known as Bara Bandai, which means "upper meadow". The names were basically given by their greenery, comparing the distances of both villages from Mingora, the main city of Swat, and by comparing their distances from the upper mountainous areas of Swat such as Kalam and Bahrain. The ancient names of these villages are not known as they are just mentioned by locations in old times books and scripts.
Location
Kuza Bandai is about 9 to 12 kilometres (5.6 to 7.5 mi) from Mingora (the main city of Swat) and Saidu Sharif (capital city of Swat). It is on the left bank of river Swat in Nikpikhel Area. Nikpikhel area varies from Bara Bandai and Ningolai village to Kala Kali village on the left bank of river. Kuza Bandai is about 83 kilometres (52 mi) from Kalam, the famous tourist spot of Pakistan. On the left side of village there is a series of mountains which are connected to some other villages and finally ends the region of Swat valley. Beyond them district of Dir starts. And on the right side lies the river Swat and after that villages of Sangota, Manglawar and Fizagat.
History
Kuza Bandai is very old as this place is first mentioned by ancient Greek writers as the pass of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great after entering into the subcontinent through the Himalayas came to Swat and his army rested for two days on the left bank of river Swat in Kuza Bandai which at that time was with ancient Hindu rajahs. After Alexander the Buddhists came and settled all over Swat including the village. Ruins of ancient homes and small buildings built by Buddhists can still be found in the mountains of Kuza Bandai and other villages of Swat. After the Buddhists Mahmood of Ghazni, the great Afghan Pakhtun conqueror came here on his way to attack the Indian subcontinent and defeated the Buddhist maharajahs here. Some of his army and Muslim population from Afghanistan settled here known as old Swatis. they lived here for about a century or more when Yusufzai tribe came from Afghanistan and attacked the valley. It is said that some people of Yusufzai tribe visited the area and they liked it very much because of its greenery and natural beauty and so they decided to take it from old Swatis by force. Yusufzai tribe were famous for their fighting skills and bravery. They were engaged in many wars even when they were in Afghanistan. After the war the Yusufzai made old Swatis to flee from the area and Yusufzais themselves settled in the valley and are in the valley till now. During the rule of Mughal king Akbar, the yusufzai tribe in Swat was attacked three times by the mughal emperor because the mughals thought yusufzais could be a danger for them in future as they left Afghanistan because of another mughal emperor Alagh Baig. The Mughal army lost all the three battles and suffered with heavy casualties. There is even a graveyard in Bunair district known as the graveyard of Mughals in which hundreds of Mughal soldiers are buried who were killed in war. After defeat King Akbar made peace with Yusufzais by making personal relations with Malik Ahmad Khan of Yusufzai tribe.
In the late 18th century the Yusufzai tribe of Swat refused to submit to the British Raj of Indian subcontinent. The British sent an army of 32000 soldiers. Most of them Sikhs as according to the British Sikhs were good warriors and could handle the martial race of Yusufzai Pakhtuns. The operation was planned to be completed in 6 weeks but it lingered on for six months and eventually resulted in a defeat for British as 35th Sikh regiment lost the battle with very heavy casualties. Most of the soldiers were even slaughtered by Yusufzais and the rest who escaped were not able to go to the battlefield again. After that intense need was felt by tribal chiefs of Swat for a state as the area was not secure from British as well as from the nawab of neighbouring Dir district (princely state at that time). So they held a jirga and decided to make Miangul Abdul Wadood as their undisputed King. As he was a syed (a man from a holy race) so no Pakhtun tribe wanted to be against him and so Swat became a princely state.