Gorwekht, also known as Gurwek (, ), is a town in the North Waziristan District of Bannu Division in the Khyber Pakhtunkwa province of Pakistan. Gurwek lies on the border with Afghanistan and is located about southwest of Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan.US drone attacks kill 21 in Pakistan. Hindustan Times. May 11, 2010.
History Gorwekht is famous for being the site from where Mirzali Khan (Faqir of Ipi)Fakir Of Ipi Anti-British Morning Tribune, 24 May 1941, Page 3 led his guerrilla warfare campaign,The Man Who Would Be King - The New York Times against the British Empire, Khan hid in caves near the town in 1937 to evade the British.Hauner, Milan. “One Man against the Empire: The Faqir of Ipi and the British in Central Asia on the Eve of and during the Second World War.” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 16, no. 1, 1981, pp. 183–212. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/260623. Accessed 15 Nov. 2025. The fort at Datta Khel was the nearest post to Khan's headquarters in Gorwekht and faced many sieges.In pictures: Waziristan
Following the departure of the British in 1947 Khan would later rebel against the newly created government of Pakistan.The Faqir of Ipi of North Waziristan. The Express Tribune. November 15, 2010.
It was in this town that Mirzali Khan symbolically declared his independent state of Pashtunistan.The legendary guerilla Faqir of Ipi unremembered on his 115th anniversary. The Express Tribune. April 18, 2016.
On May 11, 2010, at least 24 "suspected militants" were killed in Gurwek and Datakhel from two drone strikes in Pakistan, in which the US fired up to 18 missiles. In 2014, about 929,859 people were internally displaced from North Waziristan as a result of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, a military offensive conducted by the Pakistan Armed Forces along the Durand Line,North Waziristan IDPs figure reaches 800,000. Dawn. July 8, 2014. which is the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
See also Mirzali Khan Mullah Powindah Sartor Faqir Umra Khan
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