Chakdara Fort (2014)

April 15, 2014

Chakdara has been an important center for the last 3500 years and is littered with remains of the Gandhara grave culture, Buddhist sites, and Hindu Shahi forts. The ancient route from Afghanistan via Nawa Pass and Swat River crosses at Chakdara.

The Mughals built a fort here, known as Chakdara Fort in 1586, occupied in 1895 by the British, who built the present fort in 1896 and were forced to defend it during the Siege of Malakand in 1897.
This small picket on a hilltop is famous, as Sir Winston Churchill, in 1895, when he was a lieutenant and was accompanying Malakand Field Force, spent a week in this picket, when this place was surrounded by a Lashkar of local tribesmen.

One can only see this fort from the outside as it is in use of Frontier COP.