Mahsud

The Mahsud (Pashto: محسود), also spelled as Mahsood, Mehsud and other variants, is a Karlani Pashtun tribe inhabiting mostly the South Waziristan Agency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

The Mahsud are divided into three great clans or subtribes, namely Alizai, Bahlolzai, and Shamankhel. Each tribe has his own Khan. A minor number of Mahsud are settled in the Logar Province of Afghanistan, especially in Charkh District, Baraki barak and Muhammad Agha, but also in Wardak, Ghazni and Kunduz Provinces. The Mahsuds also inhabit the center and north of South Waziristan valley, surrounded on three sides by the Darweshkhel Wazirs, and being shut off by the Bettanis Pashtun tribe 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. There are also some Mahsuds living in the UAE, Germany and the United Kingdom.