'Northern Waziristan Militia at Miram Shah', 1907

Photograph by Lionel Cecil, North Waziristan, 5 March 1907.

Fort at Miranshah, now the administrative headquarters of North Waziristan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan.

Waziristan was split into two administrative areas, North and South, in 1895. In 1900 paramilitary militias were raised to maintain law and order in both regions, allowing regular British forces to withdraw to more settled areas. The North Waziristan Militia was raised at Idak on 1 June 1900, formed of infantry and a small unit of mounted infantry, totalling around 520 men, with three British officers.

The militia was a mobile unit, well suited for the operations against Waziri tribes and bands of bandits, and tasked with protecting the strategically important Tochi Pass.

From a photograph album of 225 photographs taken by Lionel Cecil, 1906-1907.