Destroyed or altered villages of (pre-Islamabad) Margalla Valley and the probable injustices.
(THREAD)

My perspective through my personal interactions with locals, online research, map analysis, etc.
Note: The first capital of Pakistan was Karachi.

BACKGROUND: When Dictator Gen. Ayub came to power in 1958, he made Dr. Doxiadis a special advisor to a commission for a new capital. A location north of Rawalpindi was chosen soon.
The reasons for this were;
A, Karachi was deemed ‘unsuitable’ to function as a capital city.

B, military establishment couldn’t have consolidated power due to the vast distance b/w Rawalpindi HQ and Karachi. The capital had to be strategically close to the power base.
We are simply told “Islamabad was constructed from scratch in 1960s”. Ever wondered what was before it?

BAGHAN KALAN:
Located where Aabpara stands today, it was where religious saint Shah Abdul Latif (Bari Imam)’s father migrated. The only trace of the old village is a shrine of his father “Darbar Hazrat Sakhi Mehmood” on left of Kashmir Highway near Aabpara Chowk.

SHAKARPARIAN:
Surprisingly, where the National Monument is built today, there used to be a village. I actually met a person, a local taxi driver, whose parents were from there. He told me there are no traces to be found now. Only this photo on the CDA website remains.

KURI:
Kuri is a town located near ChakShehzad and Tarlai Kalan. Looking at this map we can see it was once connected to Rawalpindi’s “Kuri Road” before Islamabad. This Road is cut entirely since the magnanimous NARC complex is built here.
https://www.rehan.com.pk/2014/02/rawalpindi-old-map-1923.html?m=1

“Kuri was a major hub during the time of Ranjeet Singh… There used to be a bazar on the size of Raja Bazar… It’s gone now.”. It was regularly marked in old maps. There used to be a considerable Hindu population that was forced to migrate in ’47 but a few temples still exist.

MALKA:
My relative once told me a story on this topic. His colleague talked of this one tree in Sector G-8/3. “Our elders used to sit under this shade”. I wasn’t very sure about this story until I saw this map from 59 where a locality was marked on the exact same spot.

Other than this, there were dozens of other villages as seen in this map of 1959;

TAKE OVER OF LAND:
There is no official record of this and no credible source. I couldn’t find anything online however I will visit government achieves post-quarantine to read up on this.

I have two written accounts. One was a shop owner in Blue Area whose parents were from the villages where F-10 and G-10 exist today and other from a local of Kuri. I take these with a grain of salt. We can’t believe these till they can be confirmed this like the stories above.

This is lost history. Maybe this history was intentionally suppressed to cover the probable injustices that happened here. Or maybe it’s just irrelevant. If it was suppressed, nothing can be for long. One day the truth comes out. I just hope there is always someone to tell it.

(End)

David Rumsey maps are the best.
1959 RawalPindi map was from Uni. Of Texas Library.
I have a youtube channel too where I talk history usually; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClHkelc0ApN1X2sEGqt9Mmw