page_title: Miramshah
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Miramshah / History
caption_attribution_description: English: 25th Punjabis (now 9 Punjab, Pakistan Army) regimental band at Miran Shah, NWFP, 1917.
context_page_description: Mīrāmshāh or Mīrānshāh is a small town that is the administrative headquarters of North Waziristan, Pakistan. Miramshah lies on the banks of the Tochi River in a wide valley surrounded by the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains. It is located at an elevation of about 930 metres, 17 kilometres from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The nearest city in Pakistan is Bannu, about 55 kilometres to the east, while the nearest city across the border in Afghanistan is Khost, 60 kilometres to the northwest.
  The city is an extremely tiny city with a shrinking population of and only 4,361, and it has only 356 households. This makes it the least populous urban area in Bannu Division, but it is also the only urbanized area in the entire region of North Waziristan, and also the entire Waziristan region, a mountainous area that has 99% of its 1.22 million residents living in rural areas.
context_section_description: Miramshah was named after the Timurid ruler, Miran Shah, the son of Timur.  
  In 1905, the British constructed Miramshah Fort to control North Waziristan.
  In the early 1950s, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and the "Tochi Scouts" of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps carried out counter-insurgency operations from Miramshah Airfield and Miramshah Fort against the insurgency fomented by the rebellious General Shudikhel Dawar and Mirzali Khan (Faqir of Ipi). In the 1950s, Miramshah was also the site of a weapons firing range of the PAF, which was located next to the Miramshah Airfield.
  After 9/11, Miramshah gained prominence in the United States-led War on Terror and has witnessed numerous drone strikes by the US Central Intelligence Agency targeting alleged militants hiding in the town and in the surrounding foothills. Miramshah and its surrounding areas have also witnessed fighting between militants and Pakistani military and paramilitary forces.
caption: 25th Punjabis (now 9 Punjab, Pakistan Army) regimental band at Miram Shah, NWFP, 1917
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2011:03:26 13:57:29", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3657", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "635", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "388"}