Oh! Lahore

Awesome Flute Jam in COKE STUDIO

2010-07-12T07:19:00.000+05:00

The Population of Lahore

2010-07-12T06:20:00.000+05:00

Lahore to be home to 11.25m come 2020

July 11, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Govt yet to come up with a reliable mechanism to collect data

LAHORE: Lahore’s population has almost doubled over the last 12 years (from 5.14 million in 1998 to about 9 million at present) and is expected to cross 11.25 million by 2020 if it keeps growing at the current rate – 2.05 per cent. It was only 2.9 million in 1981 census.

On average, 547 children are born in the six teaching hospitals of Lahore everyday. The provision of basic healthcare and education facilities to these children however remains questionable. Though the government officials claim that the unregulated growth of population has stopped, the statistics say otherwise.

The world is observing Population Day on July 11 (today). The theme for this year is ‘Everyone Counts’ which aims to highlight the importance of data collection.

Our population census organisation and population welfare ministry, however, have yet to come up with a reliable mechanism to collect population data.

An official of the Population Welfare Department absolved his department of responsibility in this regard saying that data collection was a federal issue. He said that the provincial department did not have any independent and reliable data collection mechanism.

Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta, the District Coordination Office (DCO), said that the city district government was planning to build infrastructure to cope with the increasing population of the city. He claimed that the unplanned growth had been stopped and new housing societies were only being allowed after they presented a complete master plan.

“We are also trying to control ill-planned population growth in the existing housing societies. With planned growth we will be able to control the population in the city in time,” he said.

The DCO said that commissioning of new schools, roads and hospitals was part of development planning.

The Ministry of Population Welfare director general said that they were working to bring down the growth rate to 1.73 per cent. On the theme of the Population day, “We are proposing a new National Population Policy of Pakistan which will be produced before the Cabinet very soon,” he said. He added that the policy aimed at collecting authentic data so that the population control plans can be made relevant and effective.

He said that the government would also consult religious scholars on the issue. The new policy, he said, would be finalised after taking the provincial departments on board.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2010.

Lahori Samosas; no longer the cheap snack

2009-08-31T06:16:00.000+06:00

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\08\31\story_31-8-2009_pg7_22

Playing pool with poverty

2009-07-12T06:44:00.000+06:00

More Loadshedding

2009-05-29T08:17:00.000+06:00

Heavy loadshedding starts

Friday, May 29, 2009
By Our Correspondent

LAHORE

Loadshedding has started again for the duration of more than 10 hours in most of the urban areas and more than 12 hours in the rural areas of the provincial capital after a gap of two days.

It was learnt on Thursday that during the previous two days, the duration of the loadshedding had decreased to seven hours in the urban areas and 10 hours in the rural areas.

People from different areas of the city told The News that the decrease in the loadshedding duration gave them a bit of respite but now the situation had become as it was before as the temperature rose again after two days.

People from Allama Iqbal Town, Township, Samanabad, Mozang, Shadman, Walled City, Chungi Amar Sadhu, Kot Lakh Pat, Sandha, Sabza Zar, Multan Road, Judicial Colony, Johar Town and Thokar Niaz Beg told The News that they had been really upset due to loadshedding during Wednesday night.

They further said that despite presidential orders to Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) that there would be no loadshedding during the night time, there was severe and continuous outage of power during the night and the unscheduled trippings were other than that.

According to LESCO spokesman, the shortfall between demand and supply was 843 MW on the evening of Thursday and the scheduled loadshedding duration were 8 and 10 hours in the urban and rural areas respectively.

When contacted, Pakistan Electric Power Company spokesman was not available to tell about the power crisis.

Why Lahoris must use bicycles

2009-05-29T08:12:00.000+06:00

Why I'm a cycling enthusiast

Urban/urbane

Friday, May 29, 2009
Ahmad Rafay Alam

In a column titled "Wake up to the New Urban Reality" (Aug 25, 2008), I had written "Our import bill is now at $1.287 billion, 87 percent higher than the same month last year. Of this amount, oil imports accounted for $752.618 million, a 135-percent increase from this time last year." Over half the money we spend buying dollars to pay for our imports goes towards the purchase of oil.

We still don't have the figures for our import bill for this fiscal year (they are compiled later), but in 2005-2006, according to the ministry of petroleum and natural resources website, the oil import bill alone was $6.7 billion. The Economic Survey of that year records a consumption of 14.6 million tonnes of petroleum products. According to the website and the Economic Survey, over half (55 percent) of the sectoral oil consumption in Pakistan was by the transport sector.

Energy, the next largest consumer, had a sectoral consumption of nearly 29 percent.

One may compare these reports for the 2006-2007 and onwards, but the trend appears to be the same: Of the oil we spend money on importing, about half is spent in fuelling our cars, buses, trucks, wagons, motorcycles, rickshaws and other motor vehicles. Wait, there's one correction: Last year, the Saudi government agreed to give Pakistan a $4.2 billion oil "facility." So, of the oil they we've bought using money we don't have, over half of it goes to fuelling our cars, buses, trucks, wagons, motorcycles, rickshaws and other motor vehicles.

Lahore has a population estimated to be in the region of eight million.

There are, last I checked, approximately 1.8 million registered motor vehicles plying the roads of the city. On a straight calculation, it would appear that nearly 20 percent of the city's residents have motor vehicles. This is not the case. Motor vehicles include cars, rickshaws and motorcycles, and anecdotal evidence suggests that a large proportion of the motor vehicles in the city are the two-wheel variety.

In any event, what these figures don't tell you is that less than 20 percent of Lahore's population actually has access to, or uses, motor vehicles.

Children don't drive, and a large proportion of the female population is completely immobile. On a day-to-day basis, I would estimate that no more than 15 percent of the population drives or uses their own motor vehicle. The truth is that most Lahoris walk, cycle, pillion-ride, car-pool or use what we euphemistically refer to as "public transport."

However, when one compares the amounts of money spent by government on cars, the figure is disproportionate to the number of people who use them. For instance, according to the 2008-2009 budget allocation, the government of Punjab allocated nearly Rs37 billion to health, public-health and education. That's Rs37 billion on three separate heads of allocation. On the other hand, its singular allocation for roads and bridges stood at Rs45 billion.

The Parwaiz Elahi government spent billions of rupees on underpasses along the Lahore Canal alone. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is doing the same, with more underpasses at Shalimar Link Road and Harbanspura. There's also talk of a billion-rupee road construction linking the city with Jati Umra, the Sharif Estate on the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile, not a rupee has been spent on public transport in the past decade. (Mr Shahbaz Sharif's initiative of the Lahore Transport Company notwithstanding, as it seemed to be derailed following the entire Governor's Rule saga.)

With such a small proportion of the city actually using fuel-eating motor vehicles the effects of Lahore's use of the motor vehicle are staggering. The pollution in the city is the worst it has ever been in recorded history. The WHO recommends, for instance, the level of particulate matter PM 2.5 be no more than 40µg/cubic metres every 24 hours.

Particle pollution is made up of chemicals, including acids, metals and soil and dust particles. Inhaled, they affect the heart and lungs. Constant traffic raises large quantities of dust into the air. According to the Environment Protection Department, this month, the level of PM 2.5 was 119 µg/cubic metres near Town Hall--119 µg/cubic metres. During the winter, these figure jump even higher. PM 2.5 also reduces visibility. The WHO limit on the presence of nitrogen oxide is 80 µg/cubic metres, whereas it stood at 110 µg/cubic metres near Town Hall. Nitrogen dioxide is formed when fuel is burned at high temperatures and one of its primary sources is thought to be motor vehicles. Carbon monoxide is produced by motor vehicles as well.

One of the reasons we have such bad pollution in the city of Lahore is because of the motor vehicle. And one wonders why, when our children and we get sick – there were an estimated 45 million cases of respiratory disease reported in 2005-2006 – they aren't any good hospitals or good doctors. It's because, instead of spending money on schools, hospitals and the training of medical staff, our government is spending it on roads that will be used by the elite few who drive the motor vehicles that pollute us in the first place. Talk about a vicious cycle.

Meanwhile, from an urban planning point of view, Lahore's sprawling growth is dependant on the motor vehicle as the only form of mobility. We simply have no public-transport alternatives. The "public transport" system currently in place, if it can be called that, is closer to an extortionate supply system feeding off an immense demand. And so, anyone who needs to get around in the city simply cannot, unless they have access to a motor vehicle. In other words, if you don't have a car, you can't do as much as someone with a car. In fact, not having a car also affects a person's income-earning potential (you can't have two jobs, for instance). The automobile-dependant growth of our cities makes them breed inequality and discrimination.

Last year, while oil prices were shooting through the roof, I decided to park my car and invest in a locally-manufactured Sohrab bicycle. If cost me less than Rs5,000 and will last me over a decade. And I've already more than made up for its cost in the amount of money I would have spent on petrol while driving around stuck in traffic all day. Many people ask about traffic safety or the levels of pollution. I tell them the chaos on the roads is a reason to improve traffic congestion. Not a reason to give up cycling. In any case, I've invested in a face mask. Many ask about the weather. The summer is undoubtedly hot, but with a few precautions (and an extra shirt), I'm usually not the worse for wear. In fact, an architect friend from London told me that his city recently introduced new building regulations requiring all buildings to have cycle stands and showers located on premises. Most of the comments I receive reveal the inverted priorities of those who take the automobile for granted.

I've also become part of a small group of cycling enthusiasts in the city who call themselves Critical Mass Lahore. Critical Mass is a cycling event that takes place the last Friday or Sunday of the month in over 200 cities around the world. Cyclists gather and take to the streets to remind people that cycling is a perfectly sound alternative to automobiles. That it's actually the automobile that causes congestion, not the cycle. That cycles don't burn costly petrol. That they don't pollute. That they don't discriminate between income groups. That our city streets are should be safe for citizens to enjoy themselves.

The group meets at the Zakir Tikka intersection on Sarwar Road in Lahore's Cantonment at 5.45 this Sunday, as it has the last Sunday of the previous six months. It's a diverse group of men and women of all ages. Some women participate to make the point that the remaining public space in our cities shouldn't be thought of as segregated.

All one needs is a roadworthy cycle and sense of fun.

The writer is an advocate of the high court and a member of the adjunct faculty at LUMS. He has an interest in urban planning. Email: ralam@nexlinx. net.pk

More details of Attack on Lahore

2009-05-28T12:37:00.001+06:00

Officers describe deadly Pakistan attack

Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

The family of police inspector Abdurauf Sultan, 54, grieves before his burial. This was the third attack in Lahore since early March.

The assault on security force buildings in Lahore that left 27 people dead and more than 250 hurt was carried out by gunmen who fired at police before their explosives-laden van detonated.

By Alex Rodriguez
May 28, 2009

Reporting from Lahore, Pakistan -- Officers guarding Pakistani police and intelligence agencies saw the gunmen jump out of the white van that had stopped at their gate.

The assailants wore white shirts and trousers, and sprayed gunfire in the air and at the police. One tossed a grenade in the direction of officers who had begun firing back.

Then, on a bustling workday morning in the heart of Pakistan's second-largest city, the explosives-laden van rammed the steel gate and detonated. The blast razed the police building, sheared off a wall from the intelligence agency office and destroyed any illusions that the military's incursion to retake parts of the country under Taliban control would succeed without great cost.

This morning, authorities put the death toll at 27, with more than 250 people injured. It was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks to strike Pakistan this year.

A group calling itself Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab claimed responsibility, authorities said today. Some experts said they believed the attack could have been a retaliatory strike resulting from the Pakistani military's offensive against the Taliban to regain control of the embattled Swat Valley and surrounding districts that has sent hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing from the fighting.

The bombers' target was clear. The van, laden with what Lahore police official Suhail Sukhera said was 220 pounds of explosives, detonated just outside buildings that housed the headquarters for the Punjab provincial branch of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's spy agency; police offices; and the homes of several top local police officials.

"These buildings were sensitive," Sukhera said as he visited injured police officers at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Some officers had suffered gunshot wounds; others had large head and chest gashes created by the blast.

"What are we going to do? We're in a state of war," Sukhera said. "They're trying to harass us, but I'll tell you what: They'll fail. You'll see us back at our offices tomorrow."

Authorities said they had suspects in custody, but there were varying reports of how many were arrested. Sukhera said two men were detained. Pakistani television reported that as many as five people were being held. Pakistan's Dawn news channel reported that two of the suspects were connected to a group linked to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mahsud. The report, however, could not be verified.

Mahsud claimed responsibility for a daring daytime raid March 30 on a police academy on Lahore's outskirts that left about 20 people dead, including at least four assailants. In early March, militants attacked the Sri Lankan national cricket team during its visit to Lahore, leaving seven people dead, six of them police officers.

Since the offensive to oust the Taliban began a month ago, Pakistani military leaders have been touting the gains that troops have made against militants they have described as "on the run." Military spokesmen have said that more than 1,100 militants have been killed in the fighting.

On Wednesday, military officials said 70% of Mingora, Swat's main city, had been cleared of Taliban. Those claims could not be independently verified because the government has greatly restricted journalists' access to the Swat district.

The offensive has received growing public support, in part because many Pakistanis see the burgeoning Taliban insurgency as a significant threat to their country's stability and security. Terrorist attacks such as Wednesday's bomb blast in Lahore could be aimed at derailing popular backing for the offensive, analysts said.

"They're trying to get publicity, sending a message to 'Stop it!' trying to demoralize the public and hoping to get publicity for themselves through massive casualties," said Talat Masood, a military analyst and former general in the Pakistani army. "People then start criticizing the government for not negotiating. I hope it won't work."

Former Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said that, given the toll that the offensive was taking on Taliban strongholds in Swat, Pakistani security forces should have been better braced for an act of retaliation.

"Such attacks are natural, and one should have expected them," Sherpao said. "Of course there was a security lapse -- that's why so many people died."

The van exploded after crashing through a security gate at a checkpoint just outside Lahore's Rescue 15 building, which houses police emergency services.

Khawar Abbas, a 25-year-old Lahore police officer assigned to guard the building, was about six feet from the van when it pulled up to the gate. Two men with automatic rifles jumped out and began firing into the air, then at Abbas and other police officers at the gate, Abbas said from his bed at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where he was recovering from a gunshot wound to his left arm.

Several officers fired back but were shot. Fahim Salim, 23, was shot twice in his left leg after firing at the gunmen.

"They looked just like us," Salim said. "They were young men dressed in white shirts and trousers -- and they had very new guns."

Abbas said that, after the exchange of gunfire, one of the gunmen tossed a grenade toward the officers.

"I fell when they threw the grenade," Abbas said. "There was a small blast, then in five seconds, a massive blast. I felt like I was right on the lap of that blast. It was only God who saved me."

The explosion left a 20-foot-wide crater in the asphalt outside the building and tore apart buildings hundreds of yards away, including nearby glass-walled office buildings and car showrooms.

At the hospital, windows were blown out.

"I was in my office when the blast happened," said Dr. Ejaz Sheikh, who heads the hospital.

"It was a terrible, intense sound. We had 22 staff people injured, but they kept treating the wounded coming in."

Late Wednesday, scores of relatives and friends met on a grass field at Lahore police headquarters, gathering on a warm, breezy night around the coffins of 15 police officers who died in the attack. After a moment of prayer, the coffins were carried away to be buried, held up by Pakistani men who shouted "Martyrdom!" as they walked briskly.

"We've had too much terrorism in the last two years," said Mahmud Ahmed Nasir, whose nephew, Gulam Mustafa Padyar, an officer who worked in the Rescue 15 building, died in the blast. "And it's the everyday Pakistanis who die, not the elite."

ajrodriguez@tribune.com

NY Times om Lahore Bombing : May, 2009

2009-05-28T12:33:00.000+06:00

At Least 23 Die in Huge Bombing in Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan — Suicide attackers spraying gunfire rammed a carload of explosives into a building housing a police emergency response unit here on Wednesday, killing at least 23 people in what officials said was a failed attempt to strike at the nearby provincial headquarters of Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency.

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K.M. Chaudary/Associated Press

Rescue workers at the scene. More Photos »

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Suicide Bombing in Lahore

Back Story: Salman Masood on the Blast (mp3)

Times Topics: Pakistan

The New York Times

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Almost 300 people were wounded in the attack, which took place in broad daylight in one of the busiest districts of Lahore. The assault underscored that militants in Pakistan now feel emboldened to strike far from their traditional strongholds in the lawless regions bordering Afghanistan.

Officials said that at least two of the attackers appeared to have died in the blast and that three suspects were detained. Some witnesses reported sustained gunfire after the explosion, indicating that at least one gunman might have escaped.

Several army and intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters, said they believed that the attack was aimed at the local command center of the Directorate ofInter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, Pakistan’s premier spy agency.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the attack may have been in reprisal for the Pakistani Army’s campaign againstTaliban militants in the northwestern Swat Valley.

“I believe that anti-Pakistan elements, who want to destabilize our country and see defeat in Swat, have now turned to our cities,” Mr. Malik told reporters.

The bomb left a crater 8 feet deep and 20 feet wide, and the blast was heard for miles around. Dozens of vehicles were crumpled like paper, and broken glass filled the street. The building of the police-run rescue service collapsed after taking the brunt of the blast, and emergency workers struggled for hours to pull out the dead and wounded.

Fahim Jahanzaib, a rescue services official, placed the death toll at 23, with more than 294 wounded.

The dead included 14 policemen and a colonel belonging to the intelligence agency, according to an intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

“It is quite apparent that the ISI was the target,” the official said, calling the attack a “brazen and well thought-out plan.”

It was the third attack in three months in or near Lahore, which is the capital and cultural hub of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and affluent province. Earlier attacks provoked official fears that Taliban insurgents had teamed up with local militants, includingLashkar-e-Taiba, suspected of conducting the attacks in Mumbai, India, in November that killed at least 163 people.

In the attack on Wednesday, a white car containing three or four attackers drove toward the rear entrance of the ISI building about 10:15 a.m., according to officials and witnesses. One man jumped out and began to spray gunfire at the police and security personnel guarding the area, said a witness, Ikram Rabbani, who works in a nearby store.

Unable to get through the building’s security barrier, the driver changed course and rammed into the neighboring building, which housed the police-run ambulance service. The building, made of brick, collapsed, shrouding the neighborhood in dust.

Mr. Rabbani said he heard a small explosion followed by a second powerful blast.

“They couldn’t get through,” the intelligence official said. “So, the second-best option was to hit the building right next to the sector headquarters.”

Immediately after the explosion, army troops poured out of the heavily fortified office of the intelligence agency. Security forces took up position on nearby rooftops, and a helicopter hovered above.

No group immediately took responsibility for the attack, but the suspicion of many Pakistani officials fell on Taliban militants seeking vengeance for the army’s current push into the Swat Valley.

“There is a possibility that this is a retaliatory blast,” said Farahnaz Ispahani, a presidential spokeswoman. “Unfortunately, the public will have to stand very strong and united because we are fighting a very powerful and ideologically driven enemy.”

The United States has been pressing Pakistan to move against the militants to undermine their support for the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of the Central Command, was in the capital, Islamabad, to meet Pakistani leaders when the attack happened, Reuters reported.

The ISI is a powerful body that has long been mistrusted by American officials, who accuse some of its members of harboring sympathies for the Taliban and Al Qaeda. But it has been the repeated target of militants, some of whom suspect ISI agents of helping theCentral Intelligence Agency pinpoint the coordinates for drone attacks on insurgents close to the Afghan border.

Maryam Kazmi, 25, who lives in the neighborhood, said she was watching television when the attack occurred. “The ground shook, and all the windows of my room flew open,” she said. “The air-conditioner’s frame fell on my bed. “It was so loud that I had to cover my ears.”

The explosion was one of a series of recent attacks in Lahore.

In March, eight people were killed in the city in a commando-style attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. Later in March, militants hit several hundred police cadets during a morning drill at their academy in a village near Lahore, killing at least eight recruits and instructors.

Waqar Gillani contributed reporting from Lahore, Pakistan, Sharon Otterman from New York, and Alan Cowell from Paris.

Four out of seven terror attacks in Lahore occur on The Mall

2009-05-28T05:52:00.000+06:00

Four out of seven terror attacks in Lahore occur on The Mall

By Ali Usman

LAHORE: Yesterday’s terrorist attack on the building of an intelligence agency and the Rescue 15 office on Queen’s Road is the seventh deadly attack in Lahore and the fourth on the busy The Mall during the last one-and-a-half years.

All four of the blasts on The Mall have occurred on one side of the city’s busiest road. A number of important government and private offices are located on The Mall, which also houses many businesses.

At least 68 people were killed in the five terrorist attacks prior to the Manawan terrorist attack. Following is a chronology of the terrorist attacks in Lahore between January 2008 to date. The major targets of most of these attacks have been law enforcement agencies. All six terrorist attacks in Lahore during January 2008 to March 2009 have been carried out in broad daylight.

GPO Chowk attack: A motorcyclist blew himself up outside the Lahore High Court (LHC) on January 10, 2008, killing 24 people and injuring 80. Around 20 police officials were killed in the attack. The attack was the first major suicide attack in Lahore and shocked the people. A wave of sympathy was generated in the general public for the police after the attack.

Pakistan Navy War College attack: Two suicide bombers attacked the Pakistan Navy War College on March 4, 2008, killing six people and injuring 23. Inter-Services Public Relations, however, said three junior-ranked officers were martyred while 16 were injured. The attack was the second one on The Mall, the main road in the city.

FIA blast: At least 30 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in twin suicide blasts at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headquarters on Temple Road and an advertising agency’s office in Model Town on March 11, 2008. The FIA headquarters at that time also housed a special US-trained unit to counter terrorism. A small truck crashed into the main entrance of the FIA building, running over a constable guarding the gate. The attacker then rammed the truck into a car parked near the reception. The blast was so severe that the windowpanes of buildings within a 2-km radius were shattered.

Garhi Shahu blasts: Three low-intensity bombs exploded in three juice shops in Garhi Shahu, injuring five people, including two children, on October 7, 2008. No casualties were reported; however, an injured passed away a day after the blasts.

Blasts at WPAF: Three blasts at the World Performing Arts Festival (WPAF) at the Alhamra Cultural Complex created immense panic among the people on November 22, 2008. The festival however concluded peacefully and no casualties were reported.

GOR-II blast: A woman was killed and five people were injured when a mini-truck packed with explosives blew up in GOR-II on December 24, 2008.

Theatres targeted: Panic gripped the city when low-intensity blasts targeted two theaters, Alfalah and Tamaseel, on January 9, 2009. No casualties were reported.

Liberty terrorist attack: At least seven people were killed and six cricketers, a coach and a Pakistani umpire was injured in an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team at the Liberty Roundabout on March 3. The attackers fired rounds of AK-47, hand grenades and rockets at the Sri Lankan team’s convoy and managed to flee the scene.

Manawan attack: The Police Training School Manawan was attacked by the terrorists on March 30. At least eight police cadets were killed in the attacks. Unofficial sources put the death toll at 27.

Lahore Suicide Blast death toll mounts to 23

2009-05-27T22:53:00.001+06:00

GEO Pakistan

Lahore suicide blast death toll mounts to 23

Updated at: 1334 PST, Wednesday, May 27, 2009
LAHORE: The suicide car bomb blast at Rescue-15 building adjacent to CCPO Office killed 23 people and injured over 200 others here in Civil Line area on Wednesday.

The injured have been shifted to different hospitals of the city where medical aid is being provided to them.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has strongly condemned the blast.

According to sources, gunshots were being heard near the blast site for minutes before a speeding red van laden with explosives broke the barriers outside the Rescue-15 building and blew up with a loud blast, bringing down the entire building.

The suicide bomber intended to target the office of the CCPO, sources added.

Explosives weighing 100 kilograms were used in the explosion which was followed by gunshots in the area with intervals while four suspects were arrested from the blast site.

Windowpanes of the nearby buildings and houses were shattered and 15 vehicles were destroyed as thick smoke clouded the blast site.

Rescue activities were kick-started after the blast and the injured were whisked away by ambulances to Meo, Gangaram and Services hospitals.

Machines are being used to recover people trapped under the debris. Six of the ten bodies brought to Meo Hospital were of policemen while two bodies are beyond recognition.

Lahore Bomb Blast on 27 May, 2009

2009-05-27T21:50:00.000+06:00

At Least 23 Are Killed in Huge Bomb Blast in Pakistan

By SALMAN MASOOD

Published: May 27, 2009

LAHORE, Pakistan — A huge suicide car bomb in one of the busiest districts of Lahore killed at least 23 people and injured almost 300 on Wednesday, officials and rescue workers said, deepening official worries that frail security in this nuclear-armed country may allow militants to strike with impunity.

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Rescue workers at the scene. More Photos »

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Suicide Bombing in Lahore

The explosion occurred near the offices of Lahore’s police chief, which was partially damaged, and of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, the premier Pakistani spy agency, which may have been the target. Rangers and army soldiers immediately cordoned off the area.

It was the third attack in three months in or near Lahore, the capital of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. The bomb left a crater eight feet deep and a vista of flattened concrete and destruction. Dozens of vehicles were crumpled like paper and broken glass filled the street. The dark pink brick building of the Rescue 15 ambulance service collapsed and emergency workers dug through the debris to try to find survivors.

No group immediately took responsibility for the attack, which Pakistani officials said may have been revenge for the Pakistan Army’s campaign against Taliban insurgents in the Swat valley north of the capital, Islamabad. “There is a possibility that this is a retaliatory blast,” said Farahnaz Ispahani, a presidential spokesperson and member of Parliament. “Unfortunately, the public will have to stand very strong and united because we are fighting a very powerful and ideologically driven enemy.”

“Very possibly, it is an attempt to subvert the army’s brave and courageous operation and the government’s resolve to defeat terrorists,” Ms. Ispahani said.

The United States has been pressing Pakistan to move against the militants to undermine their support for the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, was in Islamabad to meet Pakistani leaders when the attack happened, Reuters reported.

Officials said at least three suspects had been detained. A crowd of onlookers beat one suspect as he was ushered into a vehicle by the police, witnesses said.

Sajjad Bhutta, the district coordination officer in Lahore, said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who rammed his vehicle into a building housing an ambulance service. The bomber broke through a security barrier before detonating the explosives. There were also reports of sniper fire. A number of witnesses and residents said they heard firing before the massive blast shook the entire neighborhood.

Ikram Rabbani, who works in a nearby store, said three or four attackers approached the building in a white-colored vehicle. One man, wearing a shirt and trousers, jumped out and opened fire.

Mr. Rabbani said he heard a small explosion followed by a second powerful blast. Troops poured out of the heavily fortified office of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency to secure the perimeter. Security forces took up position on nearby rooftops and a helicopter hovered above for a short while.

Fahim Jahanzaib, a rescue services official, said the death toll was 23 with more than 294 injured. Raja Riaz, a senior minister in the Punjab Province government, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that that about 30 people died.

At the site of the blast, police officials tried to stop people from gathering. “Move away,” shouted one officer. “Firing is still going on,” he warned as a throng of people tried to break through a police cordon.

A filling station was totally destroyed and several car showrooms nearby were damaged. Workers were seen clearing the debris and shattered glass as mangled vehicles lay nearby.

The explosion recalled a series of attacks.

In March, eight people were killed in the city in a commando-style attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, prompting a British umpire to complain that promises for heightened protection were not honored.

“We were promised that we would get presidential-style security,” the umpire, Chris Broad, who was traveling with the team, said after returning to Britain.

Then, later in March, militants hit several hundred police cadets caught off guard during a morning drill at their academy in a village near Lahore.

The attackers went on a rampage, killing at least eight recruits and instructors. One attacker was killed in the siege that followed and, in a gory finale, three detonated suicide belts, killing themselves. More than 100 people were wounded.

At the time, Rehman Malik, a senior adviser in Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, said the seven attackers had rented an apartment in Lahore but came from Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas in the west — the same region used by the Taliban to stage attacks on American forces in Afghanistan.

The attack reinforced an assessment by Pakistani and American authorities that Taliban insurgents were teaming up with local militant groups to make inroads in Punjab, which is home to more than half of Pakistanis. The alliance poses a serious risk to the stability of the country, those authorities said.

Waqar Gilani contributed reporting from Lahore and Alan Cowell from Paris.

The Bomb Crater

2009-05-27T21:47:00.001+06:00

2009-05-27T21:39:00.001+06:00

Police and rescue workers gather at the site of a bomb attack at police headquarters in Lahore, Pakistan, on Wednesday. The car bomb was said to be revenge for an offensive against the Taliban.

MOHSIN RAZA/REUTERS

Suicide bomb in Pakistan kills 30

The attack in Lahore is the nation's deadliest this year and underscores the spread of the Taliban insurgency.

By David Montero

posted May 27, 2009 at 8:14 am EST

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues .

A devastating suicide bombing rocked the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, killing 30 people and wounding more than a 250. It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan this year, and underscored that a roiling Taliban insurgency is spreading deeper into the country.

Until recently, Pakistan's eastern border near India had largely remained outside the theater of conflict. Most attacks have taken place in the West, just a few miles from the Afghan border, in regions like Swat, Buner, and Waziristan, where Pakistan's military has been battling militants for the last several months.

But Wednesday's bombing was the third in as many months to strike in or around Lahore, a vibrant and tolerant city of 15 million. And it followed a pattern consistent with Taliban attacks, striking a symbol of the Pakistani state: buildings belonging to the city's emergency services police. It may also have been intended to target nearby buildings of the InterServices Intelligence, or ISI, the country's intelligence wing.

Pakistan's English newspaper Dawn on Wednesday emphasized the targeting of the ISI building, which was badly damaged.

At least four men with rifles stepped from the car and opened fire on the intelligence agency building, then set off a massive blast when security guards returned fire, officials said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik suggested the attack could be retaliation for the government's military offensive to rout Taliban militants from the northwestern Swat Valley.

The Associated Press said the injured included bystanders and police, and added that ISI agents were among the dead.

For the last month, Pakistan's military has waged a concerted campaign to flush out militants in Swat valley and surrounding districts. The assault is seen as a major test of Pakistan's ability to regain control of – and keep – territory taken by extremists, The Christian Science Monitor reported recently.

And so far, the military claims to have made impressive gains: killing more than 1,000 militants in the assault, recapturing most of Buner, a district 60 miles from the Pakistani capital, as well as the main cities of Swat, according to the Daily Times, a Lahore-based English newspaper.

Security forces said on Tuesday they had made "considerable progress" in securing Mingora, [the main city of Swat] as fierce fighting continued to wrest back control of Kabal from the Taliban.

"More than half of Mingora is under the army's control. We have plugged all escape routes for militants," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told a press conference, saying pockets of "hardcore militants" remained.

But the army's figures are difficult to verify since journalists are barred from the conflict zone. And as Wednesday's attack highlighted, taking on the Taliban in one area of the country seems only to be spreading the insurgency to others. The New York Times points out that Lahore has become a target for attacks in recent months.

In March, eight people were killed in the city in a commando-style attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team…

Then, later in March, militants hit several hundred police cadets caught off guard during a morning drill at their academy in a village near Lahore....

The [latest] attack reinforced an assessment by Pakistani and American authorities that Taliban insurgents were teaming up with local militant groups to make inroads in Punjab, which is home to more than half of Pakistanis. The alliance poses a serious risk to the stability of the country, those authorities said.

How Pakistan can best stem the tide of the insurgency is a question that American, NATO, and Pakistani leaders are scrambling to answer. The Boston Globe reports that American intelligence officials aren't very clear who the Taliban are.

Top military and intelligence officials say they know far too little about the disparate groups they are fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan and believe many fighters have been incorrectly labeled as the Taliban, lumping those who pose the greatest threat with others who may be willing to share power with the Afghan and Pakistani governments.

The Globe adds that US intelligence was well versed in the adversaries it faced in Iraq, unlike in Afghanistan.

But as US intelligence efforts were trained on Iraq, there was no comparable attempt to map out the different groups facing off against American and allied forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to multiple US government officials and analysts. A recent Obama administration review of US policy found American understanding of the nature of those adversaries to be seriously lacking.

Some technical details of the quake

2005-10-09T10:35:00.000+05:00

ISLAMABAD: The country's worst and strongest earthquake emerged somewhere 10 kilometres depth due to the movement of tectonic plates (individual sections that make up the Earth's surface like panels on a football) 95 km north northeast of Islamabad, 115 km east southeast of Mingaora, 165 km north of Jhelum and 125 km west northwest Srinagar.
The United States Geological Survey's Richter Scale measured it at 7.6 degrees while the Japanese Met office gauged it at 7.8 degrees. The epicentre located somewhere in Mansehra district (34.432°N and 73.537°E) brought its first and severest tremors at 8:50:38 in the morning. Experts believe the depth of earthquake's epicentre is key factors in its force and duration. Soon after the earthquake, the inhabitants of the mountainous region reported drawing muddy water from the fresh water wells.

The region's worst earthquake was witnessed during the British colonial rule on May 30, 1935, when the Richter Scale techniques were rudimentary, but it could measure its intensity at 8.1 killing 30,000 plus inhabitants in the city.

Normally, origin or epicentre of earthquakes in Pakistan has been the Hindu Kash mountain ranges and that somewhere inside Afghanistan. The Saturday's earthquake has not only brought death and destruction to the northern Pakistan and entire Jammu and Kashmir state but also raised new scientific question as to whether a new tectonic activity has started in down below the Hazara division, endangering the populous cities of Peshawar to Lahore and putting at risk the civilian and defence industry in the seismological active zone.

Saturday's series of tremors have been the strongest and longest spell in the region's history. After the deadliest earthquake, country faced 16 aftershocks, the last of which recorded close the Iftar time, all originating from the same epicentre except for two coming from the depth of 20.3 km and 16.3 km while intensity varied from 5.2 to 6.3 at the Richter Scale, according to the US Geological Survey.

The News spoke to a variety of experts across the country to find some insight into the widely rumour of the spell of aftershocks continuing for another two days, no one came up with a specific answer. Despite high tech innovations in geology, prediction of an earthquake still remains a distant dream. Some successful studies have been conducted into post-earthquake.

The Earth's crust is made up of 12 individual tectonic plates. Below the sea, they can measure 4km to 9.6km thick and under land this increases to 32km to 70.8km. Below the crust, radiation from the Earth's core heats the semi-molten mantle to temperatures of over 5000°C.
The first practical scale for measuring earthquakes was developed by geologist Charles Richter at the California Institute of Technology in 1930s, and the scale that most scientists use today still bears his name. There are two ways in which scientists quantify the size of earthquakes--magnitude and intensity. Seismograph is another device that records earthquake activity and the measurement systems written to help interpret that data. Remember that the Richter scale is not a physical device, but a mathematical formula.

Although the Geological Survey of Pakistan is there to provide the latest information on such issues, it did not come up to educate the masses in the disaster-like situation. It website under subject "earthquake information" further links up the reader to a one-day seminar on earthquake preparedness but remains blanks about the technical aspects of the worst tremors in the country's history.

The Pakistan Met Department has divided the country into four zones based on expected ground acceleration. The areas surrounding Quetta, along the Makran coast and parts of the NWFP, along the Afghan border fall in Zone 4. The rest of the NWFP lies in Zone 3, with the exception of southern parts of this province, which lie in Zone 2. The remaining parts of the country's coast up to Karachi also lie in Zone 3. The remaining parts of the country lie in Zone 2. The major cities of Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Islamabad both sit in this zone. But they are regularly rattled by strong earthquakes from the north or from neighbouring Afghanistan. The upper western part of Balochistan and regions along the border with India lie in Zone 1. This zone also includes Lahore where there was serious damage caused by the 1905 Kangra earthquake in neighbouring India.

According to various expert studies conducted prior to October 8 earthquake, the most vulnerable parts of Pakistan lie in Balochstan province and around Quetta stretching to the Afghan border and western parts of Balochistan, which include the Makran coast up to the Iranian border. These regions could expect to have a maximum peak ground acceleration (PGA) ranging between 0.24g and 0.4g. Parts of northern Punjab could expect a maximum PGA ranging between 0.24g and 0.32g. Similar values of PGA could be expected in northern sections of the NWFP and around Karachi, in Sindh Province.

Maximum PGA values for the rest of the country do not fall below 0.8g. These values steadily decrease towards the Indian border. The region with the lowest maximum PGA is a region between Khangarh and Fort Abbas, along the international border with India.

According to the Geological Survey of Pakistan, the earthquake activity in Pakistan is mainly concentrated in the north and western sections of the country, along the boundary of the Indian plate and the Iranian and Afghan micro-plates.

The Chaman Fault runs along Pakistan's western frontier with Afghanistan from Kalat, in the northern Makran range, past Quetta and then on to Kabul, Afghanistan.

A fault also runs along the Makran coast and is believed to be of the same nature as the West Coast fault along the coast of Maharashtra, India. An active subduction zone exists off the Makran coast. The great 1945 earthquake was centred in this region. This zone forms the boundary between the Arabian and the Iranian micro-plate, where the former subducts or dives beneath the latter. Thrust zones run along the Kirthar, Sulaiman and Salt ranges. There are four faults in and around Karachi and other parts of deltaic Indus, and Makran coast.

The first is the Allah Bund fault that passes through Shahbundar, Jah, Pakistan Steel Mills, and runs through eastern parts of the city and ends near Cape Monz. This fault, in fact, has caused extensive damage in the past many centuries in the deltaic areas.

The destruction of Bhanbhor in the 13th century and damage to Shahbundar in 1896 were caused by this fault. The other one emanates from the Rann of Kutchh.

The third one is the Pubb fault which ends into Arabian sea near Makran coast and the last one is located in the lower Dadu district near Surajani and falls in the vicinity of Karachi. Tsunamis or tidal waves have also affected the coast of Pakistan. The worst case was in 1945 when an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 struck the Makran coast; waves as high as 12 meters were reported.

The most severe earthquake in 100 years

2005-10-09T10:14:00.000+05:00

Lahore was rocked yesterday at 9 am by an earthquake of 7.6 on the Richter scale. A teenager was killed and five others sustained minor injuries following the collapse of a roof of a plaza at the New Alamgir Market in the Shah Alam area. The earthquake orginated near Azad Kashmir and thus Muzaffarabad District was affected the most. The death toll this morning is over 2,000 people. Tremors were felt in all parts of Northern Pakistan and in India. An apartment tower (Margalla) in Islamabad collapsed due to the earthquake.

Pak Tea House

2005-08-08T09:19:00.000+05:00

By Ayesha Javed Akram

They say Faiz Ahmed Faiz used to sit there. They say there was a time when the tea was made to perfection. They say the biscuits were crisp, the pastries fresh. Today though, the Pak Tea House is but a relic.Though the Lahore Writer’s Club continues to hold meetings there, and just yesterday they conducted a musical evening at the Tea House, but it is no longer the literary hub of legend. In an attempt to find out who the average customer of the Pak Tea House is nowadays, I started dropping in regularly for tea, served in cups without saucers. Twice, I encountered cups without handles, and once, I was served in a cup with so many cracks I wondered why the tea wasn’t dripping all over the table. “Is this the crockery Faiz sahib was served in?” I asked the waiter. He shook his head, scowled, and walked away. But if you don’t mind feebly rotating fans, sticky tables and the constant drone of passing traffic, the Pak Tea House could become your favourite haunt for the following reasons:Even when you order a single cup of tea, the teapot placed on your table always contains enough for two servings. Tea is made from milk, and not milk powder. If a fly falls into your tea, thanks to the dimly lit interior, you would never know. No one dresses up for tea. By simply paying for tea here, you can feel good that you are doing your bit toward promoting literature in Lahore. But in my six visits to the Tea House, I did not encounter any literary activity. The first time I dropped in was in the middle of a hot July afternoon, when the Tea House reeked of sweat, grease and milk that had been cooked for too long. Understandably enough, there were only three customers. At a corner table sat an elderly man with a salt and pepper beard flowing over his cup. The heat had put him to sleep, and his loud snores remained uninterrupted by the rude glances the other visitors were throwing in his direction. At a table across from him sat a student who was in his final year at King Edward Medical College, and had come to drown the sorrow of failing his oral exam in cups of sugary tea. Near the door sat a confused looking foreigner with an open note-pad in his lap. He was a tourist, making his way through India and Pakistan, and had been told that the Tea House was of historical importance. So far, he hadn’t been able to figure out how. “So, did your founder drink tea here?” I overheard him ask one of the waiters.On my second visit, I encountered two bicycle mechanics who worked opposite the Tea House and had dropped in for a mid-morning break. They had heard that this place was once habituated by famous people, but had never seen any in here. “My father told me that he once saw Allama Iqbal have tea here,” said one of the mechanics.My third visit brought me in touch with a couple of NCA students who claimed the place never ceased to inspire them. “I adore the ambience,” said a young boy whose ponytail flowed down to his shoulders. “This Tea House has character,” said the other. The next time, I noticed a slight change. Tables had been pulled up to the centre and joined together to seat about 20 men. They sat in a circle, dressed similarly in ill-fitting shalwar kurtas and grimy overalls, gesturing wildly as they spoke. Cups of unfinished tea sat in front of them. The heated discussion seemed to be gaining momentum, and I inched forward to try and overhear the arguments. But instead of Ghalib’s couplets, the ruckus was over the wages they worked for at a motor workshop. Once the discussion became a series of abuses, I realised it was time to leave. On my fifth visit, I encountered the sleepy old man again. I was told he was a regular of sorts, though no one knew his name and referred to him as Baba Ji. On my sixth visit, I couldn’t squeeze into the Tea House for a musical evening was in full swing, and an enraptured audience had occupied all the available chairs. So much for literature.

Flickr

2005-03-30T22:15:00.000+05:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Badshahi Mosque

2005-03-30T22:14:00.000+05:00

Badshahi Mosque
Originally uploaded by Digerati_.

As viewed from Cuckoo's Cafe

The Carnival of the Year in Lahore: Basant

2005-02-12T00:00:00.000+05:00

2005-02-11T23:59:00.000+05:00

Ladies reach for the sky on Basant

2005-02-11T23:58:00.000+05:00

Bo Kata

2005-01-24T22:57:00.000+05:00

Proud buyers of two camels towing them home for the Eid sacrifice

It's Eid

2005-01-21T15:56:00.000+05:00

Eid is an event that everyone is excited about till it finally arrives. On Eid the males get up and prepare for the mass prayer. Usually new and traditional clothes are worn. The prayer is held in several mosques and open spaces at different times. The grandest congregation is in the historic Badshahi Mosque. Since I live in the Cantonment and getting to Badshahi Mosque means having to go through congested street and heavy traffic, I walk down to the nearby PAF Stadium for an open air affair. There are still a couple of acquaintances from my Air Force days who pray there and we get to see each other.

The prayer is the shortest of all prayers in Islam but the sermon and post prayer recital elongate the event to about just under an hour. The maulana finds himseld on top of the world while addressing the largest congregation of the year. He yells, shouts and screams thinking that his voice must reach the last man. The fact that he is being helped by an electronic gadget (amplifier and speakers) has still not dawned upon him. I guess he thinks shouting is proportionate to the amount of power he believes he has that morning. After the prayer everyone greetings friends and fellows and returns home.

The Eid breakfast is singular in content. You get only one course; vermicelli with boiling milk and sugar to taste. Some richen it with a little cream and an ilaichi or two for enhancing the flavour. This is usually followed by a gift giving activity. Most people prefer to give cash and those receiving are only too happy to receive the same. On this Eid, the men get busy again or begin the wait for the butcher who cuts the sacrificed animal into desired portions. The meat is to be divided into three parts; one for the poor, one for friends and relatives and one for oneself. The day is taken up in distributing and receiving meat.

By afternoon, everyone is tired and many older folks surrender to an afternoon nap.

Eid become quite a boring day as it progresses. There is little community activity. Its just another holiday to be whiled away. The children have their fun with the money that they get and the new clothes they wear. Some families take to visiting the whole clan. This is a very tiresome activity the chief gain of which is the large number of calories one collects in the process. Dinners are not popular on Eid. Most people enjoy quiet dinners at home.

This time it rained on Eid; luckily the rain started after the prayer. We are quite unprepared for the operating in rainy conditions. Eid was thus even more static than what it usually is. Thank Allah it does not snow here - people might not even go for the morning prayer in such a case. But all said and done, we await the next Eid.

2004-08-19T13:13:00.000+05:00

Its so hot in Lahore

2004-08-19T13:11:00.000+05:00

Lahore: today

2004-08-19T13:09:00.001+05:00

Past and Present

2004-08-19T13:09:00.000+05:00

PAF basant over Lahore : September, 1965

2004-08-19T13:08:00.000+05:00

Flying high on Basant

The History of Lahore

2004-08-19T12:23:00.000+05:00

Though legend attributes the founding of Lahore or Lohawarana to Lava, the son of Rama, it is not probable that Lahore was founded History. before the first century A. D., as we neither find it mentioned in connexion with Alexander, nor is it described by Strabo or Pliny. On the other hand, it may possibly be the Labokla of Ptolemy, as Amakatis, which is mentioned by that. author as, near Labokla, has been identified by Cunningham with the ruins of Amba Kapi, about 25 miles from Lahore. The first certain historical record of Lahore is, however, that of Hiuen Tsiang, who mentions it as a large Brahmanical' city visited by him in A. D. 6,30 on his way to Jullundur. About this time it is probable that the capital of the kingdom 'of Lahore was transferred to Sialkot, as Albircini speaks of Lahore as a; prgvince,whose capital was Mandh ikur, and it ; is noticeable that Al Masiidi;makes no mention of Lahore. At the end of the tenth century the kingdom of Lahore was in the hands of a Brahman dynasty, and in A. D. 988 Jai Pal, the reigning - monarch, was decisively beaten by Sabuktag n. ', Mahmnd did not visit Lahore for more than twenty years after his first invasion, of the Punjab, though he defeated jai Pal in loos and Anand Pal in roo8'. Lahore city was not at this: time a place of great importance: In 1034 Lahore was seized by Nialtigin, the revolted, governor of Multan. He, how- ever, was expelled, and in 1036 Lahore was made the capital of the Ghaznivid dominions east of the Indus, A flnal insurrection by the Hindus at Lahore in 1042 was quelled by Maudud, and the city was left in charge of Malik Ayaz, whom Muhammadan tradition regards as the founder. During the reign. of the first eight - Ghaznivid princes Lahore was governed by viceroys as the head-quarters of a province - but during the reign of Masud III (1099-1114) it was made the seat of government of the empire. After MasUd's death Muhammad Bahlim„ governor of Lahore, rebelled against Bahrain Shah in 1119, but was defeated;, and in 1153 Khusru Shah again transferred the seat of government to Lahore, where it. remained till 1193, The city , was put to ransom by Muhammad of Ghor in 1x81, and taken in 1186. From this time onwards Lahore was the centre of the opposition to the authorities at Delhi, while subject to the constant incursions of the turbulent Khokhars, who devastated the country round in 1205. _On the death of Muhammad of Ghor in 1206 Kutb-ud-din Aibak was crowned at Lahore his lieutenant Kubacha lost the city to TaJ-ud- din Yalduz in 12o6, but it was recovered by Kutb-ud-din in the same year, From the death of Aram Shah in 1231 the province 'of„ Lahore became the bone of contention between Altamsh. at Delhi, Nasir: ud-din Kubacha at Multan, and Taj-ud-din Yalduz at Ghazni, Yal. duz in 12,15 took Lahore from Nasir-ud-din ; but Altamsh defeated him in the following year, and made himself master of the city in 1217. On the death of Altamsh in 1236, Malik Ala-ud-din Jani of Lahore broke out in revolt; and after he had been defeated and killed, Kabi-Khan-i-Ayaz of Lahore likewise rebelled in 1238, but submitted later. Then follows a century during which Lahore lay at the mercy of incessant Mongol raids, It was taken by them in 1241, and put to -ransom in 1246. The city was rebuilt by Balban in 1270; but in 1285 the Mongols returned, and Balban's son, prince Muhammad, was slain in an encounter on the banks of the Ravi, the poet Anair Khusru being captured at the same time. Muhammad's son, Kai Khusru, was appointed governor of the Punjab. in his stead, but was murdered in x287. The suburb of Mughalpura was founded about this time by Mongol settlers, and Dua the Chaghatai made a raid on Lahore in 1301, Under Ala-ud-din Khilji, Ghazi Malik, afterwards the emperor Tughlak Shah, received charge of the territories of Dipalpur and Lahore as warden of the marches against the Mongols, an office he seems to have discharged with some success. , owever, the Khokhars took Lahore in r34z,.and akin in 1394, when it was recovered bySarang Khan. In 1398 Lahore' was taken by a detachment of- Timur's arn yi and seems to have lain desolate till it was rebuilt by Mubarak Shah in 1422. Jasrath Khokhar attacked Lahore in the same year, and again in 1431 and 143 z, but without success; but iii 1433 Shaikh All took the city, which, however, he had almost immediately to, surrender. In 1441. Bahlol Khan Lodi was appointed to the fiefs of Lahore and Dipalpur, and seized the opportunity of turning against his master Muhammad Shah. Lahore seems to have enjoyed a period of peace under the Pathans ; but in the reign of Ibrahim., Lodi, Daulat khan Lodi, governor of Lahore, revolted and called in the aid of Babar. Lahore was plundered by Babar's troops in 1524, but in his final invasion in the :next year he passed: to the north through Sialkot. The period of Mughal rule was. the golden : time of the history, of Lahore, which :again l ame a place of royal residence and grew to be, in the language-',p;€ ;Abul Fazl,'the grand resort of. people' of all nations'; it still rt i many splendid memorials.of, this perio4l: On the accession of HtiltliRyt1%., Kamran, his -younger brother., tool possession of Lahore and obtained the Punjab. together with. Kabul and Kandahar. In the struggle between Humaytin and Sher Shah; Lahore was the military head-quarters of the Mughals, and narrowly escaped; destruction on their temporary defeat. Humaycit' pntered Lahore triumphantly in 1554, being received with: every expression of joy; but after Akbar had come to the throne, the place was seized in 1563 by his younger brother Hakim, who, though expelled, made another assault in 15811, from which he was repelled by Akbar in person. Akbar held his court at Lahore from 1584 to r5g8; where he was visited by some Portuguese missionaries, and by the Englishmen I itch, Newbery, Leedes, and Story. He enlarged and repaired the fort, and surrounded the town' ith a wall, portions of which still remain, embedded- in the modern work of Ranjit Singh. Specimens of the mixed Hindu and Saracenie style adopted by Akbar survive within the" fort, _though largely defaced by later alterations. Under that great emperor, Lahore rapidly -increased in area and population. The most thickly inhabited portion covered the site of the existing city, but long bazars and 'populous suburbs spread over the now desolate tract without the walls. Some time after Jahangir's succession in z6©5 prince Khusru escaped from Agra, seized the suburbs of Lahore, and .besieged the citadel; but he was quickly defeated and his followers put to death with great barbarity. Gura Arjun was implicated in this rebellion and died in. captivity, or, as the Sikh tradition has it, disappeared miraculously beneath the waters of the Ravi. His shrine still- stands between the Mughal palace and the mausoleum of Ranjit Singh. Jahangtr fixed, his court, at Lahore in x622 and died near by in 1627. He erected the greater KhwAbgah or sleeping-place,' the Moti Masjid or `pall mosque,' ,and the tomb of Anarkali, now used as a repository of secre- tariat records. The palace originally consisted of a large quadrangle, surrounded on three sides by a colonnade of red stone pillars, with c4pitals intricately carved with figures of peacocks, elephants, and griffins. In the centre of the fourth side, overlooking the Ravi, stood a lofty pavilion in the Mughal style, flanked by two chambers with elaborately decorated verandas of Hindu- architecture. A garden filled the interior space of the quadrangle, with a raised platform' of marble mosaic, while beneath the colonnade and pavilion under- ground chambers afforded cool retreats from the midday sun. Th : beauty of this building was largely disfigured by Sikh and European alterations, but a great deal has been done recently towards its restoration: Jahlngir's mausoleum at Shahdara forms one of the chief ornaments of Lahore, though even, this has suffered. The tombs of Nur Japan, his devoted wife, and of her brother Asaf Khan, have fared worse, having been stripped of their marble facings and coloured enamels by the Sikhs.

Shah Jahan erected a smaller palace by the side of his father's building, the beauty of which can still be -discerned through the whitewash which covers the marble slabs and hides the depredations of the Sikhs. To the same emperor is due the range of buildings to the left -of the Khwabgah, with octagonal towers, the largest of which, known as the Samman Burj, contains the exquisite pavilion, inlaid with flowers wrought in precious stones, which derives its name of ' the Naulakha I from its original cost of 9 lakhs ; together with the Shish Mahal, afterwards the- reception-room of Ranjit Singh, and the' scene of the transfer by Dallp Singh of the sovereignty of the Punjab to the British Government. Lahore was seized by Shahryar on Jahangir's death; but he was soon defeated, and between 1628 and 1637 Lahore enjoyed peace and prosperity under the rule of All Mardan Khan and. Hakim All-ud-din; generally known as Wazir Khan. The mosque built by the latter in 1634, in- a Perso-Mughai style, contains in the panellings. of its walls and minarets the finest known examples of khashi or inlaid pottery. This form of decoration, which must be reckoned among the lost arts of India; may also be studied to. advantage in the mosque erected by Dai Anga, the wet- nurse of Shah Jahan, in x635, which; after being used for several years as an office, has now been vacated and restored ; in the Chauburji, or "four-turreted gateway,' built in 1641 by the princess Zeb-un-nisa, daughter of Aurangzeb; and in the -Lahore fort, where the kkashhi, panels cover a surface of about 8,ooo square yards. The panelling in the fort was carried out during the reigns of Jahang r and Shah Jahan, and possesses a special interest' in the fact that, contrary to the almost invariable rule in Muhammadan art; figures of men and animals are freely introduced. During the feign of Shah Jahan, Lahore must have had a circuit of some 0 or 17 miles, the portion of the city outside the walls consisting of-numerous thickly inhabited suburbs connected with the city gates by long bazars. The people of Lahore warmly espoused - the cause of Dara - Shikoh; and supplied him with men and money on his flight westward in 1658. r The Shalamar gardens and pleasure-ground, situated 4. miles east of Lahore city, were laid out in 1667 by Ali Mardan Khan, the celebrated engineer of Shah Jahan, in imitation of the garden `planned by the emperor Jahangir at the sources of the Jhelum river in Kashmir: The garden consisted of seven divisions representing the seven degrees of the Paradise of Islam, of which only three are included in the present :area of about 8o acres, the remainder having fallen into decay. In the centre is a reservoir, bordered by aim elaborately indented coping and studded with pipes for fountains. A cascade falls into it over a slope of marble corrugated in an ornamental carved diaper. 'During the troublous times of Ahmad Shah the gardens were neglected, and some of the decorative works were defaced and removed. Ranjit Singh restored them l but at he same time he laid 'ruthless hands upon the marble pavilions of the central . reservoir, using them to adorn the Rambagh, at Amritsar) and substituting structures of brick and whitewash in their stead Under Aurangzeb Lahore began to decline in population. Even before his time the foundation of ShahjahanabAd, or'modern Delhi, had drawn away the majority of the classes dependent upon the court; and the constant absence of the' emperor contributed still more to depress the city. Aurangzeb also constructed an embankment for three miles along the Ravi, to prevent inundations, but with such undesirable success that the river completely altered its course, and left the town at a considerable distance. Among his other works, the Jima Masjid or 'great mosque' ranks first, a stiff and somewhat ungraceful piece of architecture, which, in its poverty of detail, contrasts with the gorgeous profuseness of Agra and Delhi) With the reign of Aurangzeb the architectural history of Lahore may be said to close, later attempts marking_ only the rapid decadence of art; which culminated in the tawdry erections of the Sikhs. From the accession of Bahadur Shah till the establishment of Ranjit Singh's authority at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the annals' of Lahore consist of successive invasions and conquests by Nadir Shah, Ahmad Shah, and many less famous depredators. The magnificent 'city of the Mughal princes and their viceroys sank into a mere heap of ruins, containing a few scattered houses and a couple of Sikh forts within its shrunken walls; while outside, a wide expanse of broken remains marked the site of the decaying suburbs which once surrounded the capital. As the capital of an outlying province Lahore early felt the effects of the decay of the empire. It was threatened by Banda's insurrection-, and Bahadur Shah marched there in 17'12, but died before. he could effect anything. A conflict ensued outside the walls of Lahore between his son Jahandar and Azim-ush-shan, in which the latter was defeated and drowned in the Ravi. Under Farrukhsiyar the governor of Lahore was defeated by the Sikhs. He was succeeded by Abdus Samad Khan, who defeated the rebels and took Banda' prisoner; and under his son Zakariya Khan the province had peace. for twenty- one years (1717-38). He, however, found it prudent to submit. to Nadir Shah, who accepted a ransom in lieu of plundering the city, Ahmad Shah Durrani occupied Lahore in 1748, and again in his second invasion, after some 'resistance from Mir Mannu (Mu n-ul-mulk), the new governor. Mir Mannu was succeeded by his widow) and her abduction by the Wazir was the pretext for Ahmad Shah's fourth invasion (1755). Lahore was occupied and placed under prince Timilir, from wham, however, it was taken by the Sikhs under Jassa Singh, They were expelled by the Marathas in 1758, who installed Ad ma Beg as governor. He died a few months later, and the Maratha power was broken by Ahmad Shah's victory at PanIpat in 1761, while the. Sikhs, who again besieged Lahore, were defeated in the following year with great slaughter at Barnala, Kabuli Mal being left as governor of Lahore. The Sikh cavalry ravaged the country round, and after Ahmad Shah's seventh invasion Kabuli Mal was ejected and the Sikhs again became masters of Lahore. For the thirty years following Ahmad Shah's final departure (1767-97) the Sikhs ruled in Lahore unmolested ; then in 1797 Shah ZamAn appeared -before the city and put it to ransom. The next year he appeared again, and on this occasion Ranjit Singh re•, ceived from him on his retirement a formal grant of the govern ment of Lahore. The rise of Ranjit Singh's power made Lahore once more the centre of a flourishing, though ephemeral, kingdom, The great Maharaja stripped the Muhammadan tombs of their orna- ments, which he sent to decorate the temple. at Amritsar ; but he restored the Shalamar gardens, erected a really beautiful baradaH in the space between the palace and the Jama Masjid, and also built a number of minor erections in the very worst taste. His mausoleum, a mixed-work of Hindu and Muhammadan architecture, forms one of the_ latest specimens of Sikh workmanship. The collapse of the Lahore kingdom. under Ranjit Singh's successors forms a chapter of Provincial history (see PUNJAB). In December, 1846, the Council of Regency was established, and the British Resident became the real central authority at Lahore. On March 29, 1849, at the con- clusion of the second Sikh War, the young Maharaja Dalip. Singh resigned the government to the British. In 1849 the environs still remained a mere expanse of crumbling ruins; and the houses of the first European residents clustered around the old cantonment, on a strip of alluvial lowland, south of the town, running parallel to a former bed of the Ravi. Gradually, however, the station spread eastward ; and now a new town covers a large part of the area once given over to ruins and jungle, while every year sees fresh addition, to the renovated capital. The native city covers an area of about one square mile. It was formerly surrounded by a brick wall, rising to a height of go feet and strengthened by a moat and other defences. But the moat has been filled in and the wall razed, and Description. ,a garden now occupies the site of the trench and wall, encircling the city on every side except the north, Though situated in an alluvial plain, the present town stands high on the debris of ages. A metalled road runs round the outer side of the rampart, and gives access io'the city by "thirteen gates. The citadel or fort `rises upon a slight-but commanding eminence at the north-eastern angle, and abuts- north- ward on the old river bed, while the esplanade stretches over an open space to the south and east. Within the city, narrow and tortuous street's, as well as lanes, some of them ending in culs-de-sac, and lined by tall houses, give Lahore a mean and gloomy appearance, but the. magnificent buildings of the Mughal period serve to relieve the dullness of its domestic architecture, and many of the houses are adorned with beautiful wood-carving. On . the north-eastern side especially, the mosque of Aurangzeb, with its plain white marble domes and simple minarets, the mausoleum of Ranjit Singh, with its rounded roof and projecting balconies, and the desecrated facade of the Mughal palace, stand side by side in front of an open grassy plain, exhibiting a grand coup d'w l. The European quarter, or civil station, lies on the south and east of the 'city. The older part, known as Anarkali, lies to the south, and originally contained a cantonment, abandoned in i851'-2 'Oh account of its unhealthiness. Anarkali is connected with the city-by a fine road known as the Old Mall, and contains the Secretariat buildings, District court-house, Government College, Punjab University, Senate Hall, the new University Hall, Town Hall, Museum, the Punjab Public Library converted from an old Mughal pavilion, Mayo and Lady Aitchison Hospitals, the Volunteer Club&' and many other public buildings, and a fine public garden. At the south end of the Old Mall stands the Chauburji, which formed the gateway of the garden of Zeb un-nisa, the accomplished daughter of Aurangzeb. To the' east is the railway colony, grouped about the station in the quarter known as the Naulakha. It contains a railway school building, wtheatre, and well-laid-out playgrounds. Near the railway station to the west 'are a large temple and dharmsala built by MM Cband, merchant. On the Empress Road a large ;building has been constructed for railway offices. To the south-east the Upper Mall stretches out far a distance of 3 miles to Government House and the Lawrence and Montgomery Halls. This road is the main thoroughfare of,the newer residential. quarter; and on or near it are situated the Cathedral and Orphanages, and the Chief Court, besides sundry Government offices and most of the European shops. A large public garden surrounds the Lawrence and :Montgomery Halls, containing a zoological garden, with a good collection of water-fowl. The village of Mozang on the south-east of the'-city is now almost surrounded on three sides by European resi- dences. Beyond Government House on the way to LAHORE CANTON- MENT is the Aitchison Chiefs' College, The municipality was created in r86q. The income during the ten years ending 1902-3 averaged 5-3 lakhs, and the expenditure 5.1 lakhs. In 1903-4 the- income and expenditure were 6-41akhs and 6-1, lakhs respectively. The chief source of in- come niatratlon. come was octroi (Rs. 4,58,ooo), 'while the main items of outlay were conservancy (Rs. 72,ooo), education (Rs. 1r,ooo); hospitals and disoen- saries (Rs. 33,000), water-supply and drainage (Rs. 8r,ooo), adminis» tration (Rs. 7x,ooo), public safety (Rs. 1,15;ooo), and public works (Rs. 62,000). A system of water-works was opened in 1881'. The supply is drawn from wells outside the city, whence it is pumped by engines direct into four connected tanks. The city, civil station, railway colony, and the village of Mozang are supplied by this system, and the estimated daily supply is ten gallons per head according to the population in igor. AI separate engine with a separate main to the reservoir is also being erected, to guard against accidents and to 'relieve the strain on the one engine now working. A drainage system, which was completed in 1883, is being remodelled. The Upper Mall is now lighted' by electricity. Most of the decorative arts for which Lahore was once famous have greatly declined or vanished altogether. The silk-workers, who once. were famous for superior cloths of BokhAra thread, now turn out only inferior and coarse materials, industries. though the trade in these is flourishing enough. The mystery of gold and silver wire-drawing has entirely disappeared, and so has the production of glass, enamel, and arms, and but little gold embroidery is now done. On the other hand, trades of a useful character have largely increased,' among which may be mentioned the manufacture of vegetable oils, candles, and soap, sulphuric and nitric acids, and printing, lithography, and book-binding. The leather trade is an important one, and a large quantity of saddlery and shoes is turned out annually. Cotton fabrics are largely made, and a great deal of ,printing on coarse cotton stuffs is done. Good woollen blankets are produced, and fine pashmma woollen stuffs. There is a consider- able output of wooden furniture, decorated as well as plain. A large quantity of bricks and tiles are burnt. Lahore is, moreover, an, im- portant centre for the collection of agricultural produce and five cotton-ginning factories, three cotton-presses, and one combined ginning and pressing factory employed 427 hands in 1904. Of the other factories, the most important are the North-Western Railway work- shops, with 4,669 employes ; two spinning and weaving mills, with 7,71 the Punjab Oil and Flour Mills, established in 188'1, which turn out large quantities of flour and of castor and other vegetable oils, and in 1904 employed 65 hands; and an 'iron foundry, which in the same year employed 57. Two printing presses give. employment to aag. The Punjab Banking Company, the Punjab National Bank, and the People's Bank have their head-quarters at Lahore; and the Bank of Bengal, the Alliance Bank of Simla, the Commercial Bank of India, and the' National Bank of India have branches in the city. ' As the head-quarters of the. Local Government, Lahore naturally contains the principal educational institutions of -the Province. These Education comprise the Punjab University, with five Colleges- . the Government, Forman Christian, Dayinand Anglo. Vedic, Islamia, and Oriental; also the Medical and Law Colleges; and the :Central Training College. The city possesses twelve high schools the Central Model High School, the Aitchison'Chiefs' College,: and the Dayanand, Union Academy, Madrasat-ul-Musalmin, and Sanatan Dharm Sabha schools, a school maintained by the Presbyterian Mission, the Victoria and Oriental schools, and three schools for Europeans; Its girls' schools' include two high schools (one for Europeans) and three middle schools (two for Europeans). Technical and special education are provided by the Mayo School of Art, the medical school; the railway technical school, the Veterinary College, the Hindu Techni- cal.'Institute, and the Government normal school. Classes are. also held in Yunani and Vedic medicine.. Printing presses are numerous, and produce zo English and .66 vernacular periodicals, of which the most important are the Civiland Military Gazette, the Tribune; and the Observer. Lahore is the head-quarters of the Anglican diocese of that name;: The Cathedral of the Resurrection, a fine building in the later Early English style, was consecrated in 1887. There is also a railway church in Naulakha. The Church Missionary Society has a theological: training school at Lahore. The city is also the head-quarters of the Roman Catholic diocese of Lahore, and contains the Pro-Cathedral;: A fine new. Cathedral, in a style which is a mixture of Roman and Byzantine, will shortly be completed. The American Presbyterian Mission has a church, and several native churches exist in the city. Missions are conducted by the Church Missionary Society and the Methodist Episcopal Mission, Lahore is the head-quarters of the Punjab Light Horse and of the 1st Punjab Volunteer Rifles, the Lahore contingent consisting of a troop of the former and three and a half companies of the latter. The fort is garrisoned by small detachments of British- and Native infantry. The chief medical institutions are the Maya and Lady Aitchison Hospitals, besides the Medical College above mentioned. Lahore Cantonment.--Cantonment and head-quarters of the third or Lahore division of the Northern Command in the District of the same name, Punjab, situated in 31° 31' N. and 74° 22' E., 3 miles east of the civil station of Lahore. It has two railway stations.- Lahore Cantonments East, on the branch of the North-Western Railway to Delhi; and Lahore Cantonments West, on the branch to Multan. Population (rgoi), 16,o8o. Till r9o6 the cantonment was called Mian Mir. The troops were moved here from the Anarkali quarter of Lahore in 1851-2 on account of the unhealthiness of the latter; but the new site is, partly on account of its defective water-supply, a notoriously unhealthy station. The ordinary garrison consists of two batteries of field artillery, one regiment of native cavalry, and two battalions of native infantry. The cantonment stands on an open and arid plain, originally bare of trees, but now gradually growing greener as canal-irrigation extends and the avenues of trees along the roadside grow up. The site is said to have been at one time named Haslimpur. Prince Dara Shikoh, brother of Aurangzeb, who was put to death by that emperor on ascending the throne, was a disciple of a famous Muhammadan saint or fir, Mullan Shah, known as Mian Mir. He purchased the village of Haslimpur, and bestowed it on his religious preceptor, after whom it was renamed. The mausoleum of the holy man is a hand- some domed building of white marble and red Agra sandstone, with a mosque in the courtyard. The income and expenditure from canton- ment funds during the ten years ending 1902-3 averaged Rs. 50,000. The Punjab Banking Company has a branch here.

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Lahore Fort

Akbar enlarged and repaired the fort, and surrounded the town with a wall, portions of which still remain, embedded in the modern work of Ranjit Singh. Specimens of the mixed Hindu and Saracenie style adopted by Akbar survive within the" fort, though largely defaced by later alterations.

The unique tile tiles at work on the north and west sides of the inner wall of the Lahore. Lahore Fort, believed to have been executed in the reign of Jahanglr. An enormous space, more than a quarter of a mile in length and 17 yards high, was decorated with enamelled tiles, exhibiting not only geometrical and foliated designs, but figures of living beings. ' Many of the scenes represented possess also considerable historical interest, illustrating the life of the Mughal emperors. Several specimens represent elephant fights, which were one of the chief recreations of the Mlughal court, and one of the finest panels shows four horsemen playing Chaugan or Persian polo.' Dr. Vogel has succeeded in securing tracings of 116 panels '. Rarity of When the antiquity and high standard of Indian civilization specimens are considered, the almost absolute non-existence of examples of minor arts. of the minor arts dating from past ages is astonishing. The only ancient pottery discoverable is that found in prehistoric cemeteries and megalithic tombs. With the exception of the enamelled tiles already mentioned, no examples of old Indian ceramic work with any pretension to artistic merit seem to exist, and the tiles, even if actually made in India, are essen- tially foreign. India never had indigenous art pottery

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Tonga; Lahore's carriage

This was the primary mode of conveyance in the old days. These days you can find some in the outskirts of the town and maybe within the walled city. The tanga wallah had his unique sense of humour. You could hire the tanga exclusively or share it with other passengers on an individual seat basis. A tanga race was an exciting event and could take place anytime and anywhere two tanga wallas found it challenging. The canopy could be folded and you could then enjoy the ride somewhat like in a Chevy convertible. The dandy tangas had mirror work in addition to fancy paint designs. Tangas were required to be registered and each one displayed a number. At night, there were two side lamps but no headlights. The horse's eyes were shielded by the harness to prevent the horse from panicking in a traffic jam.

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Lahore Museum

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Kim's Gun

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Shalamar Gardens

The Shalamar gardens and pleasure-ground, situated 4. miles east of Lahore city, were laid out in 1667 by Ali Mardan Khan, the celebrated engineer of Shah Jahan, in imitation of the garden `planned by the emperor Jahangir at the sources of the Jhelum river in Kashmir: The garden consisted of seven divisions representing the seven degrees of the Paradise of Islam, of which only three are included in the present area of about 8o acres, the remainder having fallen into decay. In the centre is a reservoir, bordered by aim elaborately indented coping and studded with pipes for fountains. A cascade falls into it over a slope of marble corrugated in an ornamental carved diaper. 'During the troublous times of Ahmad Shah the gardens were neglected, and some of the decorative works were defaced and removed. Ranjit Singh restored them l but at he same time he laid 'ruthless hands upon the marble pavilions of the central . reservoir, using them to adorn the Rambagh, at Amritsar) and substituting structures of brick and whitewash in their stead

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Jehanghir's Tomb

The fine sepulchre of Jahanghir near Lahore (A.D. I627-8), is much less familiar to tourists than the buildings at Lahore. Agra and Delhi, is remarkable for its display of 'all the re sources of inlaying in marble, stone, and pottery, lavished on the central tomb. There is no structure in India which pre sents so many classes of mosaic work as this' (Cole). These classes comprise black and white panels filled with outlines of flagons and other objects, executed in a style possessing dignity without excessive severity; zigzag bands of variegated marbles and coloured stones; mosaics in geometrical patterns; pie/ra dura work in the Florentine fashion; and mosaics in enamelled tiles. The art of embellishing buildings by the application of amples of enamelled tiles was derived, through Persia, from the old- enamelled tiles. world craftsmen of Assyria and Babylonia. It was introduced into India by the Mluhammadan invaders during the twelfth century, and from that time was frequently employed with great effect. Good early examples of this form of decoration are to be seen at Multan on the tombs of Baha-ul-hakk and Rukn-ud- din, dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The colours employed are dark blue, azure, and white. Tiles of green, yellow, and blue colour were used extensively to adorn the palace of the Hindu Raja, Man Singh, at Gwalior, which was built at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The floral patterns executed in green, yellow, and blue tile mosaics on the walls of Jahangir's tomb (A.ID. 1627-8) are extremely effective.

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In Lahore Fort

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Shalamar Gardens

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Minar-e-Pakistan

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Lahore Painting

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Badshahi Mosque

I was born in Lahore

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I was born in Lahore in Lady Aitchison Hospital in 1950, three years after Pakistan became independent. Lahore came into being in about the first century AD. It is one of the oldest towns in Pakistan and is located on the bank of the river Ravi. There is a lot of history here but somehow the local people are not quite interested in history. There are different reasons for that. Today it is the second largest city of Pakistan and the provincial capital of Punjab. I moved back to Lahore three years ago and intend never to leave it.

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