Mehsud

The Mahsud (Pashto: مهسود، محسود، مسعود‎), also spelled Maseed (Pashto: مسید‎), Mahsood and Mehsud, is a Pashtun tribe inhabiting parts of the South Waziristan Agency in the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. A large number of Mehsud lineages are settled in the Logar Province of Afghanistan, especially in Charkh and Mokhand village, but also in Wardak, Ghazni and Kunduz. The Mahsuds inhabit the center and north of South Waziristan valley, surrounded on three sides by the Darwesh Wazirs, and being shut off by the Bettanis on the east from the Derajat and Bannu districts. Two Pashtun tribes, the Ahmadzai Wazirs and the Mahsuds, inhabit and dominate South Waziristan. Within the heart of Mahsud territory in South Waziristan lies the influential Ormur (Burki) tribe's stronghold of Kaniguram. The Ormurs are considered by other tribes of South Waziristan to be close brethren of the Mahsuds due to marital and other ties and the fact that the Ormurs have lived in and controlled Kaniguram for over a thousand years. Some Mahsuds are scattered in the Logar, Wardak, Ghazni and Kunduz provinces of Afghanistan. There are also some Mahsuds living in the UAE, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The Mahsuds usually pronounce their name Māsīd. They are divided into three great clans or subtribes, namely Manzai, Bahlolzai, and Shaman Khel. Mahsuds usually call these Drei Māsīd, meaning the "Three Mahsuds". Each tribe has his own Khan. In the words of Sir Olaf Caroe, who acted as the former governor of the British Indian Frontier, "The Mahsud tribe are a people who can never even think of submitting to a foreign power." From 1860 to 1937, the English forces repeatedly attacked Mahsud positions, but never got a foothold in the area.