Mirpur (Urdu: میر پور) is the largest city in Azad Kashmir, and the capital of Mirpur District. Mirpur is located at the extreme south of Azad Kashmir at a elevation of 459 meters (1509ft). It is 161 kilometres (100 miles) from Islamabad via the Grand Trunk Road and 295 kilometres (183 miles) from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir.
Since Mirpur lies at the point where the River Jhelum breaks out of the heavily forested foothills of the Pir Panjal mountains into the plains of the largely treeless Punjab, it was an ideal spot for the construction of the boats which have were used to carry goods down the five rivers of the Punjab to the river Indus, and onto the seaports in the Indus delta from which traders have been operating across the Indian Ocean for at least the past three thousand years.
Training as a boat-builder was a necessary prerequisite for becoming a boatman, so most of the crew on the boats trading up and down the Punjab and Indus valley river system were drawn from Mirpur, where the boats were built.
With the arrival of British rule however, the thriving river trade was decimated due to the construction of railway lines from Bombay and Karachi into the interior of the Punjab. Moving goods by rail was both cheaper and quicker, and hundreds of Mirpuri boatmen found themselves out of a job.
This was just the time when long-distance ocean trade was shifting from sail to steam, with the result that there was a huge demand for men who were prepared to work in the hot, dirty and dangerous stokeholds of the new coal-fired steamers. European seamen avoided such jobs whenever they possibly could. They preferred to work on deck. But in the 1870s Mirpuri ex-river boatmen in Karachi were desperately searching for a new source of income. They were used to working on ships, and although unfamiliar with stoking coal-fired boilers, they were prepared to learn. Before long they gained a virtual monopoly of jobs as engine-room stokers on steamships sailing out of Karachi and Bombay, a position they retained until coal-fired ships were finally phased out of service at the end of the second world war.
Post war
However after world war two a new set of opportunities open up. Britain's economy was just setting off on what proved to be a long post-war boom, and there was an acute short of labour in the foundries of the Midlands, and the textile mills of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Now it was the turn of ex-seamen to become industrial workers in Britain. So when the Mangla lake was filled up in 1966, depriving large numbers of Mirpuri farmers of their land, an alternative was readily available: to move overseas to join those of their kinsfolk who had established themselves in Britain.
As a result, Mirpur is one of the principal sources of migration from Pakistan to Europe, and especially to Britain, so much so that close to half a million migrants from this area now live in the UK. Although it is widely believed that the principal reason for this outflow was the construction of the Mangla Dam, this is only partially true. Whilst the construction of the dam undoubtedly reinforced the scale of the outflow, since the waters of the lake swamped most of the best land in the District, emigration from this region began long beforehand.
Mirpur City
Mirpur chowkMirpur city is situated at 459 meters above sea-level and is linked with the main Peshawar-Lahore Grand Trunk road at Dina Tehsil. It is the headquarters of Mirpur District, which comprises three sub-divisions, Mirpur, Chaksawari & Dadyal[1]. The building of the new city in late sixties paved the way for New Mirpur situated on the banks of Mangla lake. In fact the remains of the old city (old Mirpur) are underneath the waters of the Mangla Lake, during colder months the water level decreases such that you can see the tops of minarets from the first mosques, and also the remnants of a Sikh gurdwara as well as a Hindu mandir possibly dedicated to the "mangla mata" (mangla mother goddess).This is a glimpse of pre-independence times when there were many faiths co-existing in Kashmir as a whole, but however after partition the Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs fled to India. Mirpur was well planned and the buildings are mostly of modern design, in addition there is significant inward investment from expatriates now living in the UK, Europe, North America, & the Middle East. The city has a sufficient number of quality hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and other urban facilities.
Industry
As Mirpur adjoins the industrial cities of Pakistan, the Government of Azad Jammu & Kashmir has successfully endeavoured to develop it as an industrial place and promote private investment for establishing, Foam, Polypropylene, Synthetic yarn, Motorbikes, Textile, vegetable ghee, logging and sawmills, soap, cosmetics, marble, ready-made garments, matches, rosin, turpentine and scooter industrial units in the area. However, much of the infrastructure still needs further development in order to compete on a national level. As part of the relief/compensation package in the wake of Mangla Dam Raising Project, a New City is being developed along the southeastern outskirts of Mirpur. Civil works at huge scale are going on around the whole district, by the Pakistani & Chinese contractors for raising the dam. Four towns in the district have been planned besides the new city, to resettle the population affected by the project.
Demographics
According to the 1998 census Mirpur had a population of approximately 370,000 making it by far the largest city in Azad Kashmir. Kashmiris account for approx 80% of the population followed by Punjabis 15%, Pathans & Afghan refugees 5% The majority of the people in the Mirpur district are Muslims, however prior to partition the district had a high number of Hindus & sikhs.
Culture
Mirpur (to the west and south) borders the Punjab province of Pakistan and the ethnicity, language and culture of both Punjab & the Mirpur district are virtually the same. The region has historically been a part of Greater Punjab. Pahari & Pothohari are the main languages spoken in Mirpur, whereas Punjabi is spoken in areas bordering Bhimber and Gujrat districts.
Development
In recent times Mipur city has seen many new developments. Some of the schemes approved and under construction include:
Geography and climate
Lying between 33°15’ and 33°34’ latitude and 73°31’ and 73°55’ longitude, Mirpur city is located at the extreme South of Azad Kashmir. Mirpur comprises partly plain and partly hilly areas. Mirpur’s hot climate and other geographical conditions closely resemble to those of Jhelum and Gujrat, the adjoining districts of Punjab, Pakistan.
Chakswari is approx 20km from Mirpur city, it is fast becoming a commercial area of the district.
Bhimber is 50km from Mirpur, the area is very rich in archaeological remains.
Jandi Chontra is a scenic spot 67Km from Mirpur in Bhimber District, the Shrine of the Sufi Saint Baba Shadi Shaheed is located here.
Khari Sharif is located 8km from Mirpur, it is famous for its Sufi shrines.
Mangla town is located 16km from Mirpur, it is situated at the mouth of the Mangla Dam for which it is famous.
Football Chok (Sector D4)- This is home to a large number of wealthy expatriates, local business men, government officials and ISI. Its an area with vast number of mansions because of this its known as Ameer Gar (Millionaires Row).
Bhalot- This is one of largest and most populous villages of Mirpur.
Mehmunpur Rajgan- situated 15 KM from Mirpur new city near Pul Manda. A famous villages of old Mirpur, Zaildar Raja Sajawal Khan(activist of freedom moment with people like Raja Akbar Khan and Subah Sadiq Shah) belonged to same village. He was imprisoned in Jammu in 1931 with Raja Akbar and Subah Sadiq when they retaliated against Quran Issue. The first meeting of Muslim Conference hosted by Raja Sajawal Khan and presided by Subah Sadiq Shah in Mirpur was held in Mehmunpur in which Ch. Ghulam Abbas, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan and other notables participated.
Since Mirpur lies at the point where the River Jhelum breaks out of the heavily forested foothills of the Pir Panjal mountains into the plains of the largely treeless Punjab, it was an ideal spot for the construction of the boats which have were used to carry goods down the five rivers of the Punjab to the river Indus, and onto the seaports in the Indus delta from which traders have been operating across the Indian Ocean for at least the past three thousand years.
Training as a boat-builder was a necessary prerequisite for becoming a boatman, so most of the crew on the boats trading up and down the Punjab and Indus valley river system were drawn from Mirpur, where the boats were built.
With the arrival of British rule however, the thriving river trade was decimated due to the construction of railway lines from Bombay and Karachi into the interior of the Punjab. Moving goods by rail was both cheaper and quicker, and hundreds of Mirpuri boatmen found themselves out of a job.
This was just the time when long-distance ocean trade was shifting from sail to steam, with the result that there was a huge demand for men who were prepared to work in the hot, dirty and dangerous stokeholds of the new coal-fired steamers. European seamen avoided such jobs whenever they possibly could. They preferred to work on deck. But in the 1870s Mirpuri ex-river boatmen in Karachi were desperately searching for a new source of income. They were used to working on ships, and although unfamiliar with stoking coal-fired boilers, they were prepared to learn. Before long they gained a virtual monopoly of jobs as engine-room stokers on steamships sailing out of Karachi and Bombay, a position they retained until coal-fired ships were finally phased out of service at the end of the second world war.
Post war
However after world war two a new set of opportunities open up. Britain's economy was just setting off on what proved to be a long post-war boom, and there was an acute short of labour in the foundries of the Midlands, and the textile mills of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Now it was the turn of ex-seamen to become industrial workers in Britain. So when the Mangla lake was filled up in 1966, depriving large numbers of Mirpuri farmers of their land, an alternative was readily available: to move overseas to join those of their kinsfolk who had established themselves in Britain.
As a result, Mirpur is one of the principal sources of migration from Pakistan to Europe, and especially to Britain, so much so that close to half a million migrants from this area now live in the UK. Although it is widely believed that the principal reason for this outflow was the construction of the Mangla Dam, this is only partially true. Whilst the construction of the dam undoubtedly reinforced the scale of the outflow, since the waters of the lake swamped most of the best land in the District, emigration from this region began long beforehand.
Mirpur City
Mirpur chowkMirpur city is situated at 459 meters above sea-level and is linked with the main Peshawar-Lahore Grand Trunk road at Dina Tehsil. It is the headquarters of Mirpur District, which comprises three sub-divisions, Mirpur, Chaksawari & Dadyal[1]. The building of the new city in late sixties paved the way for New Mirpur situated on the banks of Mangla lake. In fact the remains of the old city (old Mirpur) are underneath the waters of the Mangla Lake, during colder months the water level decreases such that you can see the tops of minarets from the first mosques, and also the remnants of a Sikh gurdwara as well as a Hindu mandir possibly dedicated to the "mangla mata" (mangla mother goddess).This is a glimpse of pre-independence times when there were many faiths co-existing in Kashmir as a whole, but however after partition the Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs fled to India. Mirpur was well planned and the buildings are mostly of modern design, in addition there is significant inward investment from expatriates now living in the UK, Europe, North America, & the Middle East. The city has a sufficient number of quality hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and other urban facilities.
Industry
As Mirpur adjoins the industrial cities of Pakistan, the Government of Azad Jammu & Kashmir has successfully endeavoured to develop it as an industrial place and promote private investment for establishing, Foam, Polypropylene, Synthetic yarn, Motorbikes, Textile, vegetable ghee, logging and sawmills, soap, cosmetics, marble, ready-made garments, matches, rosin, turpentine and scooter industrial units in the area. However, much of the infrastructure still needs further development in order to compete on a national level. As part of the relief/compensation package in the wake of Mangla Dam Raising Project, a New City is being developed along the southeastern outskirts of Mirpur. Civil works at huge scale are going on around the whole district, by the Pakistani & Chinese contractors for raising the dam. Four towns in the district have been planned besides the new city, to resettle the population affected by the project.
Demographics
According to the 1998 census Mirpur had a population of approximately 370,000 making it by far the largest city in Azad Kashmir. Kashmiris account for approx 80% of the population followed by Punjabis 15%, Pathans & Afghan refugees 5% The majority of the people in the Mirpur district are Muslims, however prior to partition the district had a high number of Hindus & sikhs.
Culture
Mirpur (to the west and south) borders the Punjab province of Pakistan and the ethnicity, language and culture of both Punjab & the Mirpur district are virtually the same. The region has historically been a part of Greater Punjab. Pahari & Pothohari are the main languages spoken in Mirpur, whereas Punjabi is spoken in areas bordering Bhimber and Gujrat districts.
Development
In recent times Mipur city has seen many new developments. Some of the schemes approved and under construction include:
Geography and climate
Lying between 33°15’ and 33°34’ latitude and 73°31’ and 73°55’ longitude, Mirpur city is located at the extreme South of Azad Kashmir. Mirpur comprises partly plain and partly hilly areas. Mirpur’s hot climate and other geographical conditions closely resemble to those of Jhelum and Gujrat, the adjoining districts of Punjab, Pakistan.
Chakswari is approx 20km from Mirpur city, it is fast becoming a commercial area of the district.
Bhimber is 50km from Mirpur, the area is very rich in archaeological remains.
Jandi Chontra is a scenic spot 67Km from Mirpur in Bhimber District, the Shrine of the Sufi Saint Baba Shadi Shaheed is located here.
Khari Sharif is located 8km from Mirpur, it is famous for its Sufi shrines.
Mangla town is located 16km from Mirpur, it is situated at the mouth of the Mangla Dam for which it is famous.
Football Chok (Sector D4)- This is home to a large number of wealthy expatriates, local business men, government officials and ISI. Its an area with vast number of mansions because of this its known as Ameer Gar (Millionaires Row).
Bhalot- This is one of largest and most populous villages of Mirpur.
Mehmunpur Rajgan- situated 15 KM from Mirpur new city near Pul Manda. A famous villages of old Mirpur, Zaildar Raja Sajawal Khan(activist of freedom moment with people like Raja Akbar Khan and Subah Sadiq Shah) belonged to same village. He was imprisoned in Jammu in 1931 with Raja Akbar and Subah Sadiq when they retaliated against Quran Issue. The first meeting of Muslim Conference hosted by Raja Sajawal Khan and presided by Subah Sadiq Shah in Mirpur was held in Mehmunpur in which Ch. Ghulam Abbas, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan and other notables participated.
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