Colonial history During the
British Empire, beginning in the late 19th century, the
British established a cantonment on the Wanna Plain which was used as a headquarters by the British forces in South Waziristan till the
partition of India in 1947. During their rule, the
Pashtun tribes of
Waziristan - part of the
Karlanri Tribal Confederation - gave the British much headache. In fact, the British, known then as the 'foreigners' , had to deal with a full-fledged insurgency in Waziristan in the 1930s. At one point during the 1930s, the British had up to 18,000 troops in and around Waziristan, with Wanna being used as the forward headquarters and airbase.
Post-Independence During 1989, the city underwent a striking increase in
Malaria with a village
Azam Warsak suffering the most.
Wanna in the war on terror Wanna has been involved in the
war on terror due to the
Al-Qaeda members affiliated with the
Taliban-aligned Ahmadzai
Waziris of the Wanna Plain. The Pakistan Armed forces have conducted several armed operations against these Al-Qaeda members since August 2003 off and on with limited success. Perhaps the town's most violent incident in the war on terror was the
Battle of Wanna which took place in March 2004 and included fighters from the
Pakistani Army against Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. More than 100 armed personnel were killed during the week of the fighting. ==Ethnic background of inhabitants==