the territories surrounding dir were populated by their current ethnic majority, the pakhtuns, beginning from the end of the 14th century. the pakhtun were divided in several clans (khels), often battling one against the other. the three great clans which conquered the zone were the yusafzai( paindakhel,sultankhel, osakhel, nasirdinkhel), tarkanrai > the dir territory was populated in the 16th century by the malizai sub-tribe of the yusufzai, who took control of the zone assimilating or chasing away the previous inhabitants (dilzak in bajour; jandool ; maiden and swatis from areas east of panjkora ) and within this tribe the most prominent fractions became the painda khel and sultan khel.