Mughal Khel
| Mughal Khel مغل خېل | |
|---|---|
| Yusufzai Tribe[1] | |
 | |
| Ethnicity | Pashtun |
| Location | Ghoriwala, Bannu[2] |
| Parent tribe | Yusufzais • Sarbani Pashtuns |
| Branches | Qasim Khel, Jafar Khel, Hakim Khel, Madasm Khel |
| Language | Pashto(Banuchi Dialect) |
| Religion |  Islam |
The Mughal Khel is a subgroup of Yousafzai Pashtun tribe, primarily residing in the southern part of District Bannu, particularly in and around the Ghoriwala region.[3]
They are known for their unique situation of being Yousafzai individuals settled far from their original homeland and speaking the Central dialect of Pashto, while still maintaining their Yousafzai heritage.[4][5] The tribe traces its lineage back to Hassan Khan Yousafzai, an adventurer from Yousafzai county,[6] who initially settled in Kurram before his descendants migrated to Ghoriwala. Hassan Khan Yousafzai belonged to the Gadezai branch of the Ilyaszai Yousafzai clan.[7] Presently, the population of the Mughal Khels is estimated to be in the tens of thousands.[8][9][10]
Genetics
Oral tradition and classical genealogical accounts link the Mughal Khel to the Yousafzai tribal division of the Pashtuns. A 2026 dataset deposited on the open-science repository Zenodo reported Y-chromosomal and autosomal analysis of a small cohort (n=3) drawn from the Qasim Khel and Jaffar Khel sub-tribes of the Mughal Khel of Ghoriwala, District Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[11] All sampled individuals were found to carry the paternal Y-chromosome Haplogroup G2b, a lineage more commonly documented among Karlani affiliated Pashtun groups than among Sarbani divisions such as the Yousafzai.[12] Autosomal Global25 modeling of the cohort indicated genetic affinity toward Northern Indus Iron Age profiles, with additional West Eurasian Steppe, West Iranic, and West-Central Asian components. Given the limited sample size, these findings should be considered preliminary.
References
- ↑ Khan Roshan Khan. Yousafzai qaum ki sarguzasht (in Urdu). Nasir khan. pp. The Mughal Khels are mentioned on p. 424 under Gadezai Heading.
- ↑ Bannu Gazetteer. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ↑ Ibbetson, Sir Denzil (1916). Panjab Castes: Being a Reprint of the Chapter on "The Races, Castes, and Tribes of the People" in the Report on the Census of the Panjab. Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab. p. 82.
- ↑ Gazetteer of the Bannu District: 1883. 1883.
- ↑ "Bannu :: Gazetteer". pmru.kp.gov.pk. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
- ↑ Muhammad Hayat Khan (1867). Hayat E Afghani By Muhammad Hayat Khan Published In 1867 Complete Book In Urdu.
- ↑ Khan, Mohammad Nawaz (2004). Peshawar: The Unwritten History. Gandhara Markaz Shahbaz Garhi. p. 43.
- ↑ "Tareekh I Peshawar تاریخ پشاور" – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Khan Roshan Khan. Yousafzai qaum ki sarguzasht. Nasir khan.
- ↑ Saifi, Gul Ayub Khan (2020-01-01). The History of Bannu Waziristan (in Urdu). Aaraf Printers-2020.
- ↑ Khan, A. (2026-08-12), G25 Coordinates and qpAdm for the Pashtun Tribe Mughalkhel, Bannu.: Autosomal DNA Reference Coordinates from the Bannu Basin, Pakistan, Jawad Khan, Shahzeb Mughal, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/ZENODO.21904598, retrieved 2026-08-12
- ↑ "AfghanDNA Samples". Google Docs. Retrieved 2026-06-21.