Kohat: Gateway Through the Pass

Kohat lies in a valley of low, dry hills south of Peshawar, just north of the Kohat Toi stream. The town grew at the southern end of the Kohat Pass, the route through the hills of the Afridi country that links the Peshawar Valley with the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the headquarters of Kohat District and Kohat Division, a cantonment and air-force town, and a market centre for the farming villages around it.

The 2023 Census counted 204,829 people in the municipal area and 31,051 in Kohat Cantonment, 235,880 in all, and 1,234,661 in Kohat District. Pashto is the main language of the district; the town also has a long-established Hindko-speaking community whose local dialect is known as Kohati.

The heart of Kohat is its British-era fort, surrounded by bazaars and the leafy cantonment. The town is famous across Pakistan for its guavas, and it is the seat of the armed forces' Inter Services Selection Board, which brings young officer candidates here from all over the country. A few kilometres west, Tanda Dam holds back a reservoir that is protected as a Ramsar wetland for wintering waterbirds.

Since the Kohat Tunnel opened in the early 2000s, most traffic on the Indus Highway runs under the pass rather than over it, and Kohat has become a key stop on the road from Peshawar to Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan. Kohat Division has seen security incidents in recent years, so travellers should check current advisories before visiting.