Kasur

Kasur (Punjabi / ; ; also romanized as Qasūr; from pluralized Arabic word Qasr meaning "palaces" or "forts" ) is a city to the south of Lahore, in the Pakistani province of Punjab. The city serves as the headquarters of Kasur District. Kasur is the 16th largest city in Punjab and 24th largest in Pakistan, by population. It is also known for being the burial place of the 17th-century Sufi-poet Bulleh Shah. It is near the border with India, and borders the Lahore, Sheikhupura and Okara Districts of Punjab. The city is an aggregation of 26 fortified hamlets overlooking the alluvial valleys of the Beas and Sutlej rivers.

Kasur (Punjabi / ; ; also romanized as Qasūr; from pluralized Arabic word Qasr meaning "palaces" or "forts" ) is a city to the south of Lahore, in the Pakistani province of Punjab. The city serves as the headquarters of Kasur District. Kasur is the 16th largest city in Punjab and 24th largest in Pakistan, by population. It is also known for being the burial place of the 17th-century Sufi-poet Bulleh Shah. It is near the border with India, and borders the Lahore, Sheikhupura and Okara Districts of Punjab. The city is an aggregation of 26 fortified hamlets overlooking the alluvial valleys of the Beas and Sutlej rivers.

Etymology

Kasur derives its name from the Arabic and Persian word qasur ( ), meaning "palaces," or "forts." According to a legend, Kasur was founded by, and named for, Prince Kusha of the Ramayana, son of the Hindu deities Rama and Sita. According to that account, the city was named Kashawar along with its neighbouring city, Lahore which was named Lahawar. Historical records reject an ancient founding of the city and date it to 1525, when it was found as a fortified settlement.

History

Early

The Kasur region was an agricultural region with forests during the Indus Valley civilization. The Kasur region was ruled variously by the Maurya Empire, Indo-Greek kingdom, Kushan Empire, Gupta Empire, White Huns, Kushano-Hephthalites and Kabul Shahi kingdoms. The region is also said to have been visited by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang in 633 AD. Alexander Cunningham writes about his visit describing the place filled with tombs, mosques, and thickly covered with ruins. The city which is most commonly associated with Kasur was described as being situated somewhere on the right bank of the Beas (Sutlej) opposite to the city of Lahore.

Sikh

The Sikhs sacked the city in 1747 under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, and again in 1763 after Durrani shifted to Afghanistan. The Sikh Empire under Ranjit Singh, captured the city in 1807 in the Battle of Kasur. During the First Anglo-Sikh War, the city was occupied by Company forces on 10 February 1846.

British

During the British Raj, the irrigation canals were built that irrigated large areas of the Kasur District. Communal disturbances between Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims erupted in 1908 over the issue of meat sales. Riots erupted following the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on 13 April 1919, leading to the destruction of civic infrastructure, including the city's railway station. Martial law was imposed on 16 April 1919 in response to the riots.

Modern

in 1947 After the formation of Pakistan in 1947, the minority Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India, while Muslim refugees migrated from India and settled in Kasur. Kasur emerged as a major centre of leather tanning after independence, and is home to 1/3rd of Pakistan's tanning industry. Kasur is one of the biggest market and trading hub in the country of hides collection and leather tanning and processing. In recent times, hide traders in Kasur were engaged in smuggling donkey hides, a medicinal demand, to China via Karachi Port. In January 2018, two protestors were killed in rioting over the rape and murder of Zainab Ansari, a seven-year-old girl. There had been 12 similar murders in the past two years, five of which have been linked to one suspect, leading to widespread anger at police failures. In November 2020, Russia sponsored a 1,122-km high pressure RLNG pipeline from Port Qasim, Karachi to Kasur. In May 2021, Islamabad and Moscow agreed to change the name of the North-South Gas Pipeline Project to "Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline".

Geography

Kasur is bordered to the north by Lahore, by India to the south and east, it also has borders with Okara and Nankana Sahab district. The city is adjacent to the border of Ganda Singh Wala, a border with its own flag-lowering ceremony.

Demographics

External links

Hasan Saeed Kasur Safe City Project Minister inspects progress on Kasur Safe City Project July 27, 2019 Kasur Safe City Project: PSCA connects CCTV cameras with IC3 Lahore June 26, 2019 CM inaugurates three mega projects in Kasur July 26, 2019 Failsal Saeed Punjab govt all set to launch safe city project in yet another district April 16, 2019

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1378402014 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.