Kotli Sattian is a tehsil (subdivision) of Rawalpindi District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Its name is derived from the mountain town of Kotli and the Satti tribe.
This subdivision is geographically a part of Murree and Kahuta hills. It was declared a subdivision in 1990 by breaking up 40 villages out of both subdivisions.
Tariq Hussain Satti is a banking professional with over 30 years of experience. Currently he is the Country Head of Habib Bank Limited, Singapore. He is a former chief executive and director of habib finance international Hong Kong, who also worked as Head of trade services HBL Pakistan. He has studied Masters of Commerce and Bachelors of Law from University of Karachi. He is an alumni of Institute of Bankers, Karachi as well. He originally hailed from Behl Chaka, Lehtrar, District Rawalpindi.
Wing Commander (R) Matiullah Satti was born in the village Ghanuyain in Kotli Sattian, Rawalpindi. He completed his primary education from the village school and his matriculation from the Govt High School Lehtrar. He Joined PAF college Sargodha as a flight cadet, after completing his graduation from this prestigious institution with distinction he joined PAF Academy Risalpur for his flying training.
Matiullah Satti was commissioned as a Pilot officer in GD(p) branch of the PAF in 1980. He became the first fighter pilot from Satti Tribe after creation of Pakistan and perhaps the second in the history of Satti Tribe.
He flew various fighter jets of the PAF like F-6, A-5 and Mirage to name a few. He also flew as a flying instructor in the academy and had the honour of leading the elite PAF Academy aerobatics team "The SHERDILS".
After serving PAF as a fighter pilot for about 16 years he decided to take premature retirement in 1996. He served only a year in his last rank as a wing commander. Matiullah Satti says "PAF is a great institution and I am who I am because of this elite organisation. I have great respect and love for PAF which is led and run by men of special breed."
A while after leaving PAF he joined UAE Air Force as a Civilian Flying Instructor in one of their fighter conversion unit. This unit was an integral part of Khalifa Bin Zayed Air College Al Ain.
Matiullah Satti had the opportunity to fly with at least 10 nationalities from the world, who formed a part of instructional staff. He said "It was great learning and I enjoyed flying the Hawk-63, (the jet flown by Red Arrows) one of the best fighter trainer in the world."
He added that "after almost 15 years in Al Ain, i chose to come back to Pakistan in 2010. It was time to try my hand on the jetliners before hanging my flying boots. I flew A-320 and A-340 with Air Blue for 5 years. I left Air Blue and joined Shaheen Air International in April 2016 and am flying A-320 to date."
"Flying is my passion, a unique profession, and I am in love with it. It’s unique in a way that its yesterday is never connected with today, for every flight, you have a new jet, new copilot, new cabin crew, new passengers, new weather, new destination and a new Runway to land....it’s a challenge all the way." (Matiullah Satti)
Captain Raja Abdul Rauf Satti was a pilot by profession, who hailed from Lehtrar (Pallan), Kotli Sattian. He was the longest serving Chief Flying Instructor of Rawalpindi Flying club which is one of the internationally recognized prestigious flying training institute in Pakistan. He became the third commercial pilot from Satti tribe after Squadron Leader Saeed Satti and Flight Lieutenant Latif Satti. He stands with pride to have trained hundreds of commercial pilots, most of the
senior pilots presently working for PIA are trained by him. In addition to this he trained commercial pilots of other Muslim countries such as Syria, Jordan and UAE. Moreover, he was the first pilot to land at Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot airports.
He had more than 16000 flying hours to his credit and holds a distinction of flying more than 12000 hours as a flying instructor. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (Ex PM of Pakistan), Captain Muneeb Mufti (Pilot in PIA) and Captain Aziz ud Din (Pilot in Saudi Airline) are among his notable students.
Prior to becoming a pilot he was a successful banker. The honour of opening first bank [MCB] in Kotli Sattian in 70s also goes to him.
Just a handful of people in Islamabad know about this exciting hiking opportunity very near to them. Panjpeer is the highest point of the Danoi Ridge in Kotli Sattian/Kahuta. It is called Panjpeer because of a shrine it has at the top. Locals believe this was a place where five saints came and got settled. It is at an altitude of approximately 1800 meters. In winters the top gets a few ft of snow each year.
Danoi hike starts from the Lehtrar rest house on the Lehtrar Road. This road links Islamabad to Bagh via Kotli Sattian. Total distance between Islamabad and Lehtrar town is around 40 Kilometers. Rest house is behind the petrol pump just a little ahead of the main bazaar. The hike starts behind this rest house and is actually an abandoned jeep road. In a couple of hours, this path reaches Danoi rest house while passing through a beautiful pine forest. Danoi rest house Is at an approximate altitude of 1300 meters.
Danoi rest house
If you have lesser time, another option is to skip the first part and start the hike right from Danoi rest house itself where a metalled road joins from Lehtrar. To reach rest house on a vehicle, follow the Lehtrar road for a further few kilometers towards Kotli Sattian till a place called as Thun Mor from where a road turns right towards Baba Saeen Matka Sharif shrine in Kamra. There is also a sign board indicating this shrine. Total traveling distance from Islamabad to Danoi rest house is around 60 kilometers. If you are coming on your own vehicle, you can park it here. Tell the rest house guards to take care of it, and they will do it well. The rest house was built in 1928 and is right in the middle of the beautiful pine forest. You can also spend the night here through an advanced booking from the forest department office near Sawan station, Rawalpindi but they are generally reluctant to entertain people without reference.
Just a few steps from the rest house, there will be many paths climbing upwards. You can take any of these which will cross the road at a few points before joining it back. Road can also be skipped if one continues to climb up a little towards right to reach the ridge. One can also spot some arrows for the directions which are marked by ASG but they are getting diminished with time. Continuing with the shortcuts and the road, the road turns in to a rough jeep track. Soon, you will be able to see Murree and Patriata on your left towards west. Enjoying the pine forest and the beautiful views hike trek offers, you will reach a place where there are big boulders stretched over a large area. This part is the specialty of this trek. Nowhere else in the whole region, you will find any thing like this. It is not just these large stretched boulders, throughout the trek you will notice large rocks of very unique size and structure. These rocks are also very tempting from rock climbing point of view however I am not sure if anyone has ever attempted them. At some places they offer a scary vertical drop of rock with a height of more 100-200 ft. Continuing on the trail will take you to Panjpeer which can be spotted from the distance by a large junk of jumbled up trees on the top. If one keeps walking along the edge and skip the road turning right, towards the shrine, one can reach the end of ridge with a nice view point from where river Jehlum can also be seen. Total travel time from Danoi to this place or the shrine is 2-3 hours. On clear days, from the top, you can see Makra and other mountains of Kaghan area on your north while different peaks of Kashmir are visible on the east.
Panjpeer Rocks
From Panjpeer, you can walk down back to Danoi if you have your vehicle parked there. Otherwise, another option is to drop down on the other side towards East to the Jehlum river through Narh. This path ends at Azad Pattan where a bridge links Azad Kashmir to this part of Punjab over river Jehlum. Public transport can be taken from Azad Pattan that will reach Islamabd in around 90 minutes via Kahuta and Sihala. Though it seems much less from the top, the trek on the way down takes around 3-4 hours.
Salman Rashid explored Danoi rest house and has mentioned it in one of his articles here. Also, check this post for another account of the same hike done by backpacker.
