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Tirah, also called the Tirah Valley (; ), and sometimes spelled Terah (), is a mountainous region located in the Orakzai District and the southern portion of the Khyber District, positioned between the Khyber Pass and the Khanki Valley in Pakistan. Due to its proximity to the Durand Line and challenging terrain, maintaining control of Tirah has been historically difficult for the Government of Pakistan. In 2003, for the first time since Pakistan's independence, the Pakistan Army entered the Tirah Valley.
The region is predominantly inhabited by Pashtuns, with minority communities referred to as Hamsaya (protected peoples), including a Sikhs primarily involved in trade and other professions.
The attacked the former and the latter were assailed by Ghairat Khan's own troops, but the Mughal forces were repulsed with great loss. Six years later, however, Muzaffar Khan, son of Khwaja Abdul Hasan, then Subahdar of Kabul, marched against Ihdad by the Sugawand pass and Gardez, and after five or six months' fighting Ihdad was shot and his head sent to Jahangir. His followers then took refuge in the Lowaghar; and subsequently Abdul Kadir, Ihdad's son, and his widow Alai, returned to Tirah. The death of Jahangir in 1627 was the signal for a general uprising of the Pashtuns against the Mughal domination. Muzaffar Khan was attacked on his way from Peshawar to Kabul, and severely handled by the Orakzai and Afridis, while Abdul Kadir attacked Peshawar, plundered the city, and invested the citadel.
Abdul Kadir was, however, compelled by the jealousy of the Afghans to abandon the siege and retire to Tirah, whence he was induced to come into Peshawar. There he died in 1635. The Mughals sent a fresh expedition against his followers in Tirah; and Yusuf, the Afridi, and Asar Mir, the Omkzai chief, were at length induced to submit, and received lands at Panipat near Delhi. Simultaneously operations were undertaken in Kurram District. Yet, in spite of these measures, Mir Yakut, the imperial Diwan at Peshawar, was sent to Tirah in 1658 to repress an Orakzai and Afridi revolt. Since the decay of the Mughal empire Tirah has been virtually independent, though owning at times a nominal allegiance to Kabul.
Tirah was chiefly notable as the scene of the Tirah Campaign that the British launched in 1897. It was a cul-de-sac in the mountains and the difficulty of its Mountain pass and the fierceness of its inhabitants had hitherto preserved it inviolable from all invaders.
According to a legend a group of Pashtuns living in Tirah, the Orakzai, got their name from an exiled prince from far away Persia."Census of India, 1901, Volume 17, Part 1" by India Census Commissioner, Edward Albert Gait. Published by the Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1902. Pg 149.
A sub tribe known as the Oriya Khel belonged to the Zaka Khel clan of the Afridi tribe. They inhabited the Tirah Valley and are now located in Cherat Saleh Khana. Although they now fall under the Khattak tribe, the Oriya Khel acknowledge their lineage and still continue to call themselves Afridi. This can be proven as the land records of Saleh Khana showed they initially belonged to Afridis and to this day the inhabitants have not changed. Furthermore the villagers of Saleh Khana still wear their turbans and grow their moustache like Afridis, customs which have been passed down by the elders.
Since 2011, the security situation in the Tirah Valley has steadily deteriorated due to ongoing conflict between numerous armed militant groups, primarily the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Islam, and Pakistan Security Forces. This conflict has led to the displacement of over one million people, forced from their homes by rising extremism and militancy.
On 28 July 2025, there was a mass shooting by unknown assailants against local protestors outside of a Frontier Corps brigade headquarter. Seven protestors were killed and 20 were injured.
On 22 September 2025, an air strike killed at least 30 while trying to target TTP militants.
Centuries of detritus accumulated in this basin have filled it up with rich alluvial soil and made it one of the most fertile valleys on the frontier. All its alluvial slopes are terraced and revetted and till every yard is made productive. Here and there dotted about in clusters all over the plain are square-built two storey mud and timber houses, standing in the shade of gigantic walnut and mulberry trees. Up on the hillsides surrounding the Maidan basin are wild in wide-grown clumps, almost amounting to forest, and occasional .
Higher still are the ; but below on the shelving plains are nothing but . Rajgul Valley lies north of Maidan, from which it is separated by a steep valley and well-wooded spur, eight to nine thousand feet high, and west of the Bara Valley, which it joins at Dwatoi. It is long, four to at its widest, and has an elevation of . It is inhabited by the Kuki Khel Afridis. The Waran Valley is another valley about the same size as Maidan, lying east of it, and separated from it by the Tseri-Kandao Pass. It was the home of the Afridi mullah Sayad Akbar. and is the country of the Aka Khels. After the junction of the Rajgul and Maidan drainage at Dwatoi, the united stream receives the name of Bara, and the valley through which it flows down to its exit in the Peshawar Valley is also known by this name. The elevation of the valley is from . at Dwatoi to 2000 at Kajurai; on the north side it is hemmed in by the Surghar range, which divides it from the Bazar Valley; on the south lies another range dividing it from Maidan and the Waran Valley.
The heat of the Bara Valley in summer is said to be excessive, malaria is prevalent, and very troublesome, so the hamlets are deserted and the Afridis migrate to the pleasant heights of Maidan. The Mastura Valley occupies the southern half of Tirah, and is inhabited by the Orakzais. It is one of the prettiest valleys on the frontier, lying at an elevation of . The Orakzais live, for the most part, in the Miranzai Valley, in the winter, and retreat to Mastura, like the Afridis, during the summer months.
The chief passes in Tirah are the Sampagha Pass (6,500 ft), separating the Khanki Valley from the Mastura Valley; the Arhanga Pass (6,99E ft.), separating Mastura Valley from Maidan; Saran Sar (8,650 ft), leading from the Zakka Khel portion of Maidan into the Bara Valley; the Tseri Kandao (8,575 ft), separating Maidan from the Waran Valley, and the Sapri Pass (5,190 ft), leading from the east of the Mastura Valley into the Bara Valley in the direction of Mamanai. The whole of Tirah was thoroughly explored and mapped at the time of the Tirah Campaign.
The fighting resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis. The vast majority of the valley's population, estimated at over half a million people, was forced to flee their homes, becoming Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Many sought refugees in camps like Jalozai or with host families in settled districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Thousands of men got arrested and killed of suspected links to the commanders of Taliban.
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