Kotli

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Kotli is the chief town of Kotli District, Pakistan. The area is not yet modernised, the roads link Mirpur and Kotli together with several interchanges. Kotli is linked with Mirpur by two metalloid roads, one via Rajdhani (90 Kilometres) and the other via Charhoi. It is also directly linked with Rawalakot via Trarkhal (82 Kilometres). Kotli has all the basic facilities like bazaars, banks, hospital, colleges, telephone & telegraph office etc. Kotli is roughly 4 and half hours from Islamabad/Rawalpindi at a distance of 141 kilometres from Rawalpindi / Islamabad via Sensa. The landscape is mostly mountainous and roads are carved into the mountains it is the 3rd major district in Azad Kashmir. There are six towns or areas within the district Kotli; Teenda,Hajiabad,Khoiratta,Fatehpur (Nakyyal),Karela Majhan and Kotli.

Teenda: Teenda is a place of viewpoint linked with metalloid road, 6 kilometres from Kotli. One can have a wonderful view of Kotli City and surrounding areas from this place. To make it an attractive tourist spot, AJK Tourism Department has constructed a Tourist Rest House here to provide accommodation facilities.

Hajiabad: Hajiabad, located on Holar-Kotli road, is a midway point for the travelers coming from Rawalpindi/Islamabad. A cafeteria for refreshments has been provided by the Tourism Department.

Khoiratta: 38 kilometres from Kotli ahead, a road leads to Khoiratta. Khoiratta and nearby area provide remarkable attraction to tourists because of the remains of gardens and fountains of the older times. From 4 kilometres ahead of Khoiratta is famous shrine of "Mai Totti Sahiba" which is visited by hundreds of people daily. A rest house by Tourism Department at Khoiratta is available for tourist accommodation.

Fatehpur (Nakyyal): Fatehpur was a part of tehsil Mahnder before independence. It is located at a distance of 40 kilometres from Kotli and 181 kilometres from Islamabad . Due to high altitude (1524 meters) Fatehpur is comparatively a cold place then the rest of the district. A Tourist Rest House provides accommodation facilities to the tourists/ visitors.

Karela Majhan: From Fatehpur, 10 kilometres ahead is Karela Majhan. Its beauty and neat, clean and peaceful atmosphere inspires everyone visiting the area. A Tourist Rest House is available here

Dandli: Dandli is a place located on Kotli Goi metalloid road, 13 kilometres from Kotli. There are many mineral resourses are held in dandli like Koila, Gandhaik. A big hill Arri Gala is located near dandli. Dandli compraising small villages their Gawan, Plung, Gojra Town, Nailan, Gunni.

Kotli has international links throughout Europe and the Americas. like many southern Kashmiris living on the fringes of the Mangla Dam in Mirpur, emigration fever took hold of the surrounding country from the mid 1950s onwards. Kotli has ties with Many European Cities such as Amsterdam, Hamburg and the larger industrial cities of central England.

Many Kotli city residents have ties to British nationals in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire.

Historically Kotli started out as race ground to the Prince's of the declining Doghra reign of Northern Kashmir. With the decline of the Doghra dynasty and the swell of migrants crossing the border into the princely state came the birth of the first real town north of Mirpur and south of district Bagh.

the original settlement of Kotli came in the 1850s through the alliance of the local landlords of Sohrotha "The Raja Baig's" and newly arrived migrants from District Poonch.

Kotli was divided between the older established Raja Baig Clan that held lands from south of Pang Piran village to Sohrohta and the newly arrived "Syed's" of Poonch who held claims from Pang Piran in the north to the Bahhn river at the fringe of Modern Kotli city.

The rival barons clung to the landlocked city and much in the vein of Feudal landlords controlled the town until the depression of the nineteen thirties toppled the economy and the reigning families.

With the onset of the India Pakistan Partition (1947) Kotli city became the standing post to the flood of immigrants that crossed the borders at Koihrota (32 miles east of Kotli)

Kotli steady growth came through the trickle of Migrants from the eastern Hindu states and signalled the gradual fall of the reigning landbaron's that settled the town.

Today Kotli is a summer boom Town. The mass emigration that took over the country in the 1960s has now created a steady boom of summer holiday makers from Britain and beyond who seek to reconnect their European born children to the old Country.

Modern Kotli is a city in bloom,

The real estate value of a once bus stop town between Mirpur and Muzzafarabad has created a thriving summer economy. The town has become a vision of three storey mansions that have taken over the once barren roads between the outer ring villages and the ever expanding city sitting on the brim of the Poonch River.