Bagh District

For other uses, see Bagh.

Bagh District (Urdu: ضلع باغ) is a district of Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.^[1] It is one of the ten districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Previously part of Poonch District, Bagh was established as a separate district in 1988.^[4]

Bagh District ضلع باغ
District of Azad Kashmir administered by Pakistan [1]
Interactive map of Bagh district
A map showing Pakistani-administered Azad Kashmir (shaded in sage green) in the disputed Kashmir region[1]
Coordinates (Bagh, Azad Kashmir): 33.9735°N 73.7918°E / 33.9735; 73.7918
Administering country	Pakistan
Territory	Azad Kashmir
Division	Poonch Division
Headquarters	Bagh
Government
• Type	District Administration
• Deputy Commissioner	N/A
• District Police Officer	N/A
• District Health Officer	N/A
Area [2]
• Total	770 km2 (300 sq mi)
Population  (2017)
• Total	371,919
• Density	483/km2 (1,250/sq mi)
Languages
• Official	Urdu[3]
• Spoken	Pahari (Poonchi)
Number of Tehsils	5

The Bagh District is bounded on the north by the Muzaffarabad District, the Hattian Bala District, and the Baramulla District of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, on the east by the Haveli District, on the south by the Poonch District, and on the west by the Rawalpindi District of Pakistan's Punjab Province. The total area of the district is 770 square kilometers.^[5] The Bagh District is linked to the Muzaffarabad District by two roads, one via Sudhan Gali (80 km) and the other via Kohala (97 km). The district headquarters is the city of Bagh, which is situated 46 km from Rawalakot. It is said that a bagh (garden) was set up by a landowner where the premises of the Forest Department are now located. As a result, the area that is now the district headquarters was named "Bagh".^[6][7]

Map of Azad Kashmir with the Bagh District highlighted in red

History

There is an archaeological site in the Bagh District called Bagh Fort.^[8]

Prior to 1947, Bagh was a tehsil in the Poonch District of Jammu and Kashmir.^[9] Historically this place was very important for all those emperor's that would wanted to establish their empire on the Northern areas and other parts of Kashmir. At that time the main power on this region was the Tanoli tribe (descendants of Khilji) and their state Amb Darband Ruled By Malik Abdul Qadir (founder of free Amb Movement after independence), great-grandfather Mir Jehandad Khan Tanoli, was a tribal chief of the Tanoli people and the state headquarter was in Darband.

The Poonch region became part of the Sikh Empire in 1819. Maharaja Ranjit Singh gave it as a jagir to Raja Dhyan Singh, his favoure Dogra diwan. Dhyan Singh and his descendants administered the region till the Partition of India in 1947. However, the maharajas of Jammu and Kashmi, who became the suzerains of the Poonch jagir after 1846, exerted increasing control over the region towards the end of the period.

Raja Baldev Singh constructed a road from Poonch to the Haji Pir pass via Kahuta, along with a suspension bridge over the Betar Nala near the town.[3] Later it appears to have been upgraded to a wooden bridge. It was burnt down by the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces stationed at Poonch during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, mistaking an Indian relief column sent via Uri to be an enemy attack. Nevertheless, a portion of the column under the command of Pritam Singh reached Poonch and helped the town survive the siege.[4]

Administrative divisions

Dhirkot Park, Bagh District, Azad Kashmir

The district of Bagh is subdivided into 5 tehsils:^[2]

• Bagh Tehsil
• Dhirkot Tehsil
• Hari Ghel Tehsil
• Rera Tehsil
• Birpani Tehsil

Geography

Topographically, the entire Bagh District is a mountainous area, generally sloping from north-east to south-west. The area is part of the Lesser Himalayas zone. The main mountain range in the district is the Pir Panjal.

The Haji-Pir Pass is situated at a height of 3421 meters above sea level. The general elevation is between 1500 and 2500 meters above sea level. The mountains are generally covered with coniferous forests. The main river in the district is the Mahl Nala, but numerous other rivulets also flow in the district.^[10]

Climate

The climate of the district varies with altitude. The temperature generally remains between 2 °C and 40 °C. The main eastern part of the district is very cold in the winter and moderate in the summer. However, the lower valleys, the localities bordering Bagh at Kohala and its adjoining areas (Mongbajri and Ajra-Bagh) remain cold in the winter and hot in the summer. May, June, and July are the hottest months. The maximum and minimum temperatures during the month of June are about 40 °C and 22 °C, respectively. December, January, and February are the coldest months. The maximum temperature in January is about 16 °C, and the minimum temperature is 3 °C. Annual rainfall is about 1,500 millimetres (59 in).^[10]

Demography

The total population of the district according to the 2017 census is 371,919.^[11]

The main language of the district is Pahari, which is estimated to be native to around 95% of the inhabitants.^[12][13] The Pahari dialect spoken in Bagh is closely related to the dialect spoken to the north in the Muzaffarabad (84% shared basic vocabulary) and to the core Pahari varieties spoken to the south-west in the Galyat region around Murree (86–88%).^[14] There are also small groups of speakers of Gujari and Kashmiri.^[12][13]

Education

According to the Pakistan District Education Ranking 2017, a report by Alif Ailaan, the Bagh District is ranked at number 5 nationally in the ranking related to education, with an education score of 73.99. The learning score is at 85.42, with a gender parity score of 88.32.^[15]

The school infrastructure score of the Bagh District is 28.32, giving Bagh a national rank of 126.^[15] School infrastructure is a major problem in all of Azad Kashmir. Access to schools, with schools being far away, is the primary reason why there are fewer enrollments after the completion of primary school.

2005 earthquake

The city of Bagh, like other areas of the district, was heavily damaged in the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. Sixty percent of the buildings collapsed. Thousands of people died, and many more found themselves homeless. In the aftermath of the earthquake, NATO sent specialists to the district to help with clearing and reconstruction.^[16] There was a report that an entire village in the district had been wiped out.^[17] The United States government, through Pakistan, distributed vouchers to people in the district so that they could buy food and water.^[18]

References

1. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary sources (a) through (e), reflecting due weight in the coverage. Although "controlled" and "held" are also applied neutrally to the names of the disputants or to the regions administered by them, as evidenced in sources (h) through (i) below, "held" is also considered politicized usage, as is the term "occupied," (see (j) below).
   (a) Kashmir, region Indian subcontinent, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved 15 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "Kashmir, region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent ... has been the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. The northern and western portions are administered by Pakistan and comprise three areas: Azad Kashmir, Gilgit, and Baltistan, the last two being part of a territory called the Northern Areas. Administered by India are the southern and southeastern portions, which constitute the state of Jammu and Kashmir but are slated to be split into two union territories.";
   (b) Pletcher, Kenneth, Aksai Chin, Plateau Region, Asia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved 16 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "Aksai Chin, Chinese (Pinyin) Aksayqin, portion of the Kashmir region, at the northernmost extent of the Indian subcontinent in south-central Asia. It constitutes nearly all the territory of the Chinese-administered sector of Kashmir that is claimed by India to be part of the Ladakh area of Jammu and Kashmir state.";
   (c) "Kashmir", Encyclopedia Americana, Scholastic Library Publishing, 2006, p. 328, ISBN 978-0-7172-0139-6 C. E Bosworth, University of Manchester Quote: "KASHMIR, kash'mer, the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent, administered partlv by India, partly by Pakistan, and partly by China. The region has been the subject of a bitter dispute between India and Pakistan since they became independent in 1947";
   (d) Osmańczyk, Edmund Jan (2003), Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements: G to M, Taylor & Francis, pp. 1191–, ISBN 978-0-415-93922-5 Quote: "Jammu and Kashmir: Territory in northwestern India, subject to a dispute between India and Pakistan. It has borders with Pakistan and China."
   (e) Talbot, Ian (2016), A History of Modern South Asia: Politics, States, Diasporas, Yale University Press, pp. 28–29, ISBN 978-0-300-19694-8 Quote: "We move from a disputed international border to a dotted line on the map that represents a military border not recognized in international law. The line of control separates the Indian and Pakistani administered areas of the former Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir.";
   (f) Skutsch, Carl (2015) [2007], "China: Border War with India, 1962", in Ciment, James (ed.), Encyclopedia of Conflicts Since World War II (2nd ed.), London and New York: Routledge, p. 573, ISBN 978-0-7656-8005-1, The situation between the two nations was complicated by the 1957–1959 uprising by Tibetans against Chinese rule. Refugees poured across the Indian border, and the Indian public was outraged. Any compromise with China on the border issue became impossible. Similarly, China was offended that India had given political asylum to the Dalai Lama when he fled across the border in March 1959. In late 1959, there were shots fired between border patrols operating along both the ill-defined McMahon Line and in the Aksai Chin.
   (g) Clary, Christopher, The Difficult Politics of Peace: Rivalry in Modern South Asia, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p. 109, ISBN 9780197638408, Territorial Dispute: The situation along the Sino-Indian frontier continued to worsen. In late July (1959), an Indian reconnaissance patrol was blocked, "apprehended," and eventually expelled after three weeks in custody at the hands of a larger Chinese force near Khurnak Fort in Aksai Chin. ... Circumstances worsened further in October 1959, when a major class at Kongka Pass in eastern Ladakh led to nine dead and ten captured Indian border personnel, making it by far the most serious Sino-Indian class since India's independence.
   (h) Bose, Sumantra (2009), Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace, Harvard University Press, pp. 294, 291, 293, ISBN 978-0-674-02855-5 Quote: "J&K: Jammu and Kashmir. The former princely state that is the subject of the Kashmir dispute. Besides IJK (Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. The larger and more populous part of the former princely state. It has a population of slightly over 10 million, and comprises three regions: Kashmir Valley, Jammu, and Ladakh.) and AJK ('Azad" (Free) Jammu and Kashmir. The more populous part of Pakistani-controlled J&K, with a population of approximately 2.5 million.), it includes the sparsely populated "Northern Areas" of Gilgit and Baltistan, remote mountainous regions which are directly administered, unlike AJK, by the Pakistani central authorities, and some high-altitude uninhabitable tracts under Chinese control."
   (i) Fisher, Michael H. (2018), An Environmental History of India: From Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge University Press, p. 166, ISBN 978-1-107-11162-2 Quote: "Kashmir’s identity remains hotly disputed with a UN-supervised “Line of Control” still separating Pakistani-held Azad (“Free”) Kashmir from Indian-held Kashmir.";
   (j) Snedden, Christopher (2015), Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris, Oxford University Press, p. 10, ISBN 978-1-84904-621-3 Quote:"Some politicised terms also are used to describe parts of J&K. These terms include the words 'occupied' and 'held'."
2. "Bagh District on AJK map". ajk.gov.pk. AJK Official Portal. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
3. Rahman, Tariq (1996). Language and politics in Pakistan. Oxford University Press. p. 226. ISBN 978-0-19-577692-8.
4. Government of Azad Kashmir
5. Bagh District Statistics
6. "AJ&K Official Portal". www.ajk.gov.pk.
7. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
8. Archived 2011-02-09 at the Wayback Machine
9. Snedden, Christopher (2015), Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris, Oxford University Press, p. xxi, ISBN 978-1-84904-342-7
10. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
11. "Census 2017: AJK population rises to over 4m". The Nation. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
12. Statistical Year Book 2020 (PDF). Muzaffarabad: AJ&K Bureau Of Statistics. p. 140. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
13. Shakil, Mohsin (2012). "Languages of Erstwhile State of Jammu Kashmir (A Preliminary Study)". p. 12.
14. Lothers, Michael; Lothers, Laura (2010). Pahari and Pothwari: a sociolinguistic survey (Report). SIL Electronic Survey Reports. Vol. 2010–012. p. 24. The wordlist for these comparisons was collected in Neela Butt.
15. "Pakistan District Education Rankings 2017" (PDF). elections.alifailaan.pk. Alif Ailaan. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 July 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
16. "Nato winds up Kashmir relief work". 31 January 2006 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
17. "Strong quake rocks Indian subcontinent". ABC News. 8 October 2005.
18. "Pakistan Earthquake Families to Receive $100 Vouchers (Update1)". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2017.

External links

• Bagh Azad Jammu and Kashmir Official Portal
• District Profile – Bagh Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) 2007