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Marooch or Sonewals
They are also called Sonewal. But they are locally and also by themselves called by Marootc. There are several small groups among them such as Sharna, Mermana and Pattan Jiba i.e the Pashto speakers. Most of their houses are located in Chillas. These people are gold collectors and collect gold by sifting sand from the rivers. This profession of gold collection is going on for centuries. The Greek historians have mentioned about them in their books and have called them the 'ants of gold'. Not much information is available about their lineages. However, they are not either Shin or Yashkun or Kamin. In certain places, they are associated with other professions. These people are farmers at Khanbari in Darel in the way of Sarkhalis farming in Masi and Ghumri. The Marootc of Khanbari pay "qalang" to the people of Darel.
I met some of their men in Chillas. They say that some Swati tribes of Kana and Chakesar, who had migrated to there, are also included among the Marootc people. They all are now also called Sonewal for their profession of gold collecting. It shows that the Pattan Jiba among them are Pashtoons and have come from Chakesar. In other words, now non-Marootc are also intermixed with Marootc and all of them are termed as Marootc for having uniform profession.
The social status of the Marootc is like that of Dom and Sarkhali. They are not the part of the local organizational structure based on land tenure system.