Mardan Cantonment Mardan Cantonment is a cantonment in the centre of Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan . The famous regiment of Pakistan Army " The Punjab Regiment centre " is here in Mardan . The cantonment has a large area for training and offices . Mardan once served as a base for British troops , who never managed to fully control the region ' s Pashtun tribes . Now it ' s home to the Pakistan Air Force Academy , at the Risalpur air base ; and the Pakistan Army ' s School of Artillery and School of Armor and Mechanized Warfare . Mardan sits on a plain surrounded on three sides in 2009 by mountains controlled by the Islamic militants . Swat lies just 30 miles to the north , with the main road to that troubled valley running straight through town . The streets of Mardan , like most Pashtun frontier towns , are filled with men with woolly beards , rough hands and wild eyes . Mardan has the feel of a backwater . On the edge of town is rusting ghost of the sugar mill that once powered the local economy . Billboards depict glitzy shopping malls never built . Mardan has an important historical and geographical position . A region communicating Afghanistan and India in the past , it had witnessed a wonderful history . Alexander the Great reached the valley through Kunar Afghanistan and Swat in 326 BC . This was followed by Buddhism till the 7th century AD . Towards the end of 7th century ; the Afghans arrived in the region . They introduced Islam in the valley . Following this Sultan Sabuktagin , Mahmood Ghaznavi , Mohammad Ghori , Mughals till the time of Aurangzeb and Nadir Shah ruled the valley . Then came the Sikhs and finally British Raj till 1947 . As of 1903 Mardan Cantonment in Peshawar District , North - West Frontier Province , was the permanent head - quarters of the Queen ' s Own Corps of Guides . It is also the head - quarters of the Mardan tahsll and the Yusufzai subdivision . Population ( 1901 ) , 3 , 572 . The cantonment is situated in 34°12 ' N . and 72°2 ' E . , on the right bank of the Kalpani river , 33 miles north - east of Peshawar and 15 miles north of Nau - shahra , on the North - Western Railway . The fort was built by Hodson of the Guides in 1854 . The civil lines lay in the southern part of the cantonment on the Naushahra road , and contained the Assistant Commissioner ' s bungalow , courthouse , tahslll , Government dispensary , and other public offices . An Anglo - vernacular middle school was maintained by the District board . The village of Hoti , from which the station is sometimes called Hoti Mardan , lies 2 miles from the cantonment . Sheikh Malee was a great Pashtoon Geographer . He lived about 500 years ago and was one of the reliable friends of Sardar Malak Ahmad , a famous Yousafzai leader . In those days Mardan , Buner , Swat and other Pashtoon areas were collectively known as Swat . He was a sincere and an honest man . But he is famous because of the land allocation programme called " Veish " which he introduced in Peshawar , Mardan , Buner , Swat and other areas . He introduced the Unit of the land . He classified Pashtoons into nine major subgroups and the region into nine districts . He wrote a book in nine volumes about his land reforms . This is called ' Daftar e Sheikh Malee ' and has been mentioned in the poems of the great poet , Khushal Khan Khattak . The 5th ( Guides ) Battalion of the 12th Frontier Force Regiment had Mardan as its normal duty station . In 1857 , the Guides formed part of the force that went from the Punjab to the aid of the British locked in a critical combat with Indian soldiers . When the news of the outbreak reached Peshawar , a council of war was at once held and measures adopted to meet the situation . The same night the Guides started on their memorable march to Delhi . On 21 May 1857 the 55th Native Infantry rose at Mardan . The majority made good their escape across the Indus , only to perish after fearful privations at the hands of the hill - men of the Hazara border . Delhi fell to the British on 20 September 1857 after a siege lasting five months . The victorious soldiers fell upon the city and freely indulged in loot and massacre . The Guides Memorial in Mardan was built by the British in 1892 in memory of their soldiers who sacrificed their lives in defence of Queen ' s Residency in Kabul in September 23 , 1879 . This historical memorial was built in the centre of Mardan city . It has three storey building . There is an opening arch in the center of this memorial while on both sides are stair cases . There is an influence of Hindu temple on the ground structures , level with suspended leaves in well carved stone works , with marble stones , mouldings which not only support the building but secure it from earthquake shockwaves . The Gothic arches are British architecture like seen in Churches . On the second floor there are open arches from where a major part of the surroundings is visible . On the third stage there are cupolas on each corner of this memorial .