Dera Ismail Khan often abbreviated to D. I. Khan, is a city in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. It is situated on the west bank of the Indus River, 200 miles (320 km) west of Lahore and 120 miles (190 km) northwest of Multan. The city is the capital of the district and tehsil of the same name.
Dera Ismail Khan was founded toward the end of the fifteenth century by Sardar Ismail Khan Baloch, a son of Sardar Malik Sohrab Khan Dodai Baloch, who named the town after himself. Dera Ismail Khan has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh) with hot summers and mild winters.
Saraiki (A Punjabi Variant) is the mainly spoken in D.I.Khan which is also spoken by majority in Tank district. The local residents of D.I.Khan are called “Dera Waal“. D.I Khan has also few people speaking Pashto. The vast majority of people are conversant in Urdu. English is understood by the educated.
One of the most famous products of this district is the “Dhakki date”, which is exported to the Middle East, United States, and Europe. This date or khajoor is grown in the nearby village of Dhakki, 49 km away on Chashma Road. This district also produces wheat, sugar cane, rice, and a famous variety of mango called the langra.
This city is connected to Bannu with the highway, which further connects it to the provincial capital of Peshawar with Kohat and Darra Adam Khel. An another road connects D. I. Khan to Mianwali through Chashma Barrage. The third major road connects it to Bhakkar in Punjab, situated on the eastern bank of the Indus River. A bridge on the Indus River was constructed in the early 1980s, before which the approach to Bhakkar was made through a boat bridge.
This city has telephone, telegraph, and internet facilities, although the telegraph has recently been abandoned, in line with the government policy of transitioning away from telegraph communications throughout the country.