City of Kohat

Kohat (Pashto: کوهاټ‎, Urdu: کوہاٹ‎), is a city in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is the capital of the Kohat District. The town centers on a British-era fort, various bazaars and a military cantonment. A British-built narrow gauge railway line runs through the town.

Kohat city is located at an altitude of 489 metres (1,604 ft).[1] Kohat Pass lies to the north. It is situated on the left bank of the Toi river at a point where after running nearly due east for 50 miles (80 km), it turns to the south. The total area of the district is 2,545 square kilometres (983 sq mi).

Tanda Wildlife Park

Tanda Wildlife Park is located near Kohat city. The total area of the park is 2800 acres, consisting of Tanda reservoir and its catchments in Kohat. This is the largest wildlife park of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . Its wonderfully rich and varied landscape supports a range of mammals and birds, both migratory and indigenous, as well as a few reptiles.

The park is bounded by three different villages, Bar, Kaghazi, and Tanda Banda. The park is approachable by Hangu-kaghazi metallic road, shahpur-Bar road which is 18 km from Kohat.

The local people do not have any right of grazing, lopping or firewood collection as the ownership lies with the provincial government. The park area falls in the natural habitat of urial and chinkara, and also provides suitable habitat to hog deer. The urial is associated with scrub forest of Olea species and Accassia species. Urial were once abundant in the area but due to continuous habitat destruction these were disappeared from the area in the near past. The natural habitat of urial and chinkara lies in close proximity of human habitation.^[2]

Kotal Pheasantry

Kotal Pheasantry is established in Kotal wildlife park in district Kohat over an area of 1 kanal, with an objective to propagate and provide breeding environment to exotic/indigenous wildlife species like silver pheasant, golden pheasant, reeves pheasant, pea-cock etc. About 20-30 visitors including students and general public visit the pheasantry for education and recreation purposes per day. There are four species of pheasants in the pheasantry including ring necked pheasant, silver pheasant, peacock pheasant and white pheasant.^[3]

Railway

Construction of the railway station and railway line was started in 1897, and was completed in 1902.

Kohat is the terminus railway station of Kohat^[4]-Jand railway line and has daily train service to Rawalpindi.^[5] It was also the terminus station of a narrow gauge (762 mm or 2 ft 6 in) railway line which connected it with Thall. This railway line was closed in 1991.

Air

Main article: Kohat Airbase

Kohat Airbase (IATA: OHT, ICAO: OPKT) is an Pakistan Air Force base. A small runway built by the British is in military use. PIA once used the airport using de Havilland Twin Otter, a small two engine plane.

Kohat Tunnel

The 1.9 kilometres (1.2 mi) Kohat Tunnel was completed in 2004,^[6] and connects the southern districts, including Kohat City, to Peshawar. Constructed with Japanese assistance, it is also known as the Pak-Japan Friendship Tunnel.

Cavagnari House Kohat

(Commissioner Bangalow Kohat)
The spacious and luxurious Mughal-cum-French-style Cavagnari House, which used to be the official residence of commissioners, was constructed in 1862 for the first British political in-charge of Kohat, Captain Sir Louis Cavagnari, in the beautiful Kohat Cantt.

He served the area from 1866 to 1877. It was during his period that work on the construction of the strategic iron bridge on the River Indus and 16 other bridges from Kohat to the Afghan border of Teri Mengal began for the movement of artillery and troops to thwart Russian aggression.

It spreads over four acres, including the building with wooden floor and seven lawns surrounding it.

In the early 20th century, on a portion of two acres out of the original six acres allocated for the residence a telegraph and post office was constructed outside the walled city for the convenience of garrison officers.
This building is now used as commissioner residence.

After storming the british residency the dessident sepoys of Amir yaqub khan set ablaze the buiding & dead bodies of the whole british contingent perished, the head of this brave officer was rolled/kicked in the streets of kabul . the sole surviver was a native L/Naik who later on narrated the story of disaster to investgation team.There is no grave of cavagnari anywhere except few memorials.

Media

• Radio Pakistan Kohat
• Kohat Press Club

Medical College

KMU Institute Of Medical Sciences, Kohat (KIMS)

KMU Institute of Dental Sciences, Kohat (KIDS)

Universities

• University of Engineering and TechnologyPeshawar Kohat Campus
• Kohat University of Science & Technology
• Preston Universityin Kohat
• Virtul University (Campus)
• Allama Iqbal Open University (Regional Office)

Colleges

• Govt Girls Degree College Kohat
• Govt Girls Degree College KDA Kohat
• Govt Postgraduate Degree College
• Govt Degree College KDA Kohat
• Cadet College Kohat
• Garrison Cadet College Kohat
• Fazaia inter college Kohat

Notable Peopls

• Justice M. R. Kayani

• Malik ur Rehman Kayani (1st Communication Minister of WEST Pakistan)

• Syed Abdullah Shah (Hazrat Haji Bahadar)

• Pir Hazrat Shah (Zinda Pir Ghamkol Sharif)

• Syed Ifthikhar Hussain Gilani 

• Syed Masood Kausar

• Major Khadim Hussain Shaheed (Sitara Jurrat)

• Khushdil Khan Afridi (K. K. Afridi, Ex Governor Balochistan)

• Ahmad Faraz (Reknown Poet)

• Iftikhar Hussain Shah (Ex. Governor Khyber Pahkhtunkhwa)

• Malik Saad Shaheed (DIG Police, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)

• Ibn-e-Ali (Rtd Chief Justice, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)

• Shahid Khan Afridi (Cricketer)

• Afzal Khan Bangash