Headquarters Battagram · One tehsil after Allai became its own district · 2023 population 335,984, all rural
Battagram is a hill district of Hazara on the Karakoram Highway, between Mansehra and the Kohistan / Shangla side. It was a tehsil of Mansehra until 1993. The 8 October 2005 earthquake hit this belt hard; that date is still how older people mark time, not a tourist line.
PBS 2023 for the present district (Battagram tehsil only): 335,984 people, 51,366 households, area 497 km². Urban column: zero. Literacy 39.09 percent overall — 54.69 percent for men, 23.34 percent for women. Phone code 0997. Postal code often listed as 21040. District site: battagram.kp.gov.pk.
Older books add Allai and quote half a million people. Allai was raised to a separate district in 2022 (218,149 people in its 2023 tehsil table). This page does not glue those two books back together.
Public lists for Battagram tehsil name these twelve councils:
Ajmera, Banian, Battagram, Batamori, Gijbori, Kuza Banda, Paimal Sharif, Peshora, Rajdhari, Shumlai, Thakot, Trand.
Thakot is the Indus-side name many drivers already know from the highway. Battagram bazaar is the headquarters. The rest are valley councils, not municipal towns.
Pashto is the main speech. Gujari and some Hindko / Kohistani speech show up in older language notes. Do not treat those percentages as a fresh PBS table unless the Bureau reprints them for this slimmer district.
Government colleges sit in Battagram. Degree students still leave for Mansehra, Abbottabad or Peshawar. DHQ Battagram is the first hospital. After 2005 the rebuilt schools and the DHQ are part of the district story, not extras. Female literacy at 23 percent is why a girls’ high school in a far union council matters more on this page than a scenery paragraph.
Winter and monsoon both close the side roads off the KKH. That is ordinary administration here.
Sources: PBS 2023; KP District Battagram; union-council list published with the current one-tehsil district. Last checked September 2026.