Kohalla Bridge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kohala Bridge across the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, forms part of one of the routes from the Pakistani-controlled region of Kashmir to the rest of Pakistan.

Contents 1 Kohala and Kohala Bridge 2 The Origin of Kohala 3 History 4 Who is the proprietor of Kohala?

[edit] Kohala and Kohala Bridge

The bridge is located at the town of Kohala, 38 km north of Murree and 29 km south of Muzaffarabad. A suspension bridge was constructed in 1877 and vanished in an 1890 flood. A new transportable steel bridge was constructed in 1899 and in 1990 it too vanished in a flood. A third bridge was constructed on the north edge of Union Council Berote kalan, Abbottabad District, in 1993. Old Western Kohala is changed as a Paradize Lost. Police Choke of Bakote Police Station is situated there with an ASI and 12 constables. Mentioned police patrolling on Kashmir Highway and Upper Dewal Kohala Road north end of Birote, meeting point of Punjab and NWFP. Kohala is 21 km to the south of AJK capital Muzafferabad, 22 km north of Murree, one miles east of Bakote on Rawalpindi Sri Nagar High Way.

[edit] The Origin of Kohala

The word Kohala originates from the famous Hindu God Shiva's consort goddess Kohala Dewi because Kohala was a place where Hindu deities were worshiped on the bank of the Watesta (Jhelum) River before the arrival of Islam. A temple called Dawal was there. An other tradition by local Dhondi language expert and historian Mohammed Obaidullah Alvi Kohala is derived from Dhondi Language word Kohal. Kohal means cattle room or house that partitioned in living room in ancient time or separate or beneath of living house in modern era. The substitute of Kohal is Gotrerhi where livestock urinate and sit. Kohala is a place where caravans from Kashmir stayed after crossing Jhelum River and their horses and donkeys were tied there in antiquity. There are two Kohalas in the region; one is on both banks of river Jhelum and a Kohala Bala at Lora, a UC of District Abbottabad.

[edit] History

Kohala was a business centre in the eighteenth century and was developed by Malka Singh of Rawalpindi and the Dogra government of Kashmir. The old name of Kohala was Patan and it was changed in 1863 by Sir James Abbott, 1st commissioner of Hazara. The British India government built a rest house in the south of Kohala for high officials with seven drying rooms, two kitchens, one reading room, two toilets and horse and dog barns. The Indian olive, banana, apple and silkworm trees were in the guest house`s eastern lawn. Guest house staff consisted of 30 people. A telegraph cum post office was established there in 1880. Allama Iqbal (Poet of the East) staying in this rest house in 1930 and wrote his famous poem HAMMALA, the 1st poem of his book Bang-e-Dra here. The bazaar of Kohala was most populated till 1947. Hindu merchants from Dewal, Murree, Rawalpindi and Punch controlled trade between Punjab and Kashmir. In 1947 the local people in kohala started attacks and all Hindu merchants fled to Punjab and Kashmir. India bombarded Kohala twice. Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Founder of Pakistan), Sir Mohammed Iqbal (Poet of the East), Jawahar Lal Nehru (1st PM of India) and many jihadis came to Kohala and entered Kashmir by crossing over the Kohala Bridge.

[edit] Who is the proprietor of Kohala?

Kohala was a land of Hindu goddess Kohala Dewi in ancient time. Mid of 500 BCE kohala become a center of the Buddhist community and a temple was constructed between Kohala and Knair Pull. It was a route of Buddhist monks for traveling from Taxila to Sharda Buddhist university in Sharda, Kashmir. Kohala was possessed by the Karhral tribe in the mid eighteenth century and in 1200 when the Dhond Abbasi tribe attacked, they vacated Bakote and Kohala also. From this time Kohala was under the proprietorship of Birote. When Mojwal family of the Dhond Abbasi tribe migrated to Bakote by force, than Kohala proprietor ship transferred to Mojwals of Bakote. In 1st decade of 1800, Malka Singh, administrator of Rawalpindi captured Kohala by force, constructed new buildings and sold it to Hindu merchants. The British government transfered Kohala administration to Murree on one hundred year lease basis in 1873. The Punjab government renewned this lease in 1973 for 20 years and it reunited with Bakote in 1993. A girls College was proposed by Punjab government in 1991 but was not possible due to lease conditions. A primary school is operating there with Rawalpindi Education Department funding . In 1997 ex-chief minister of NWFP Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi prposed to buy mentioned Kohala rest house where he wanted to construct a three star personal hotel for tourists on commercial basis, but this deal with Public Works Department (PWD) Punjab occur due to his government collapse in 1999. People of the region are demanding a new Bakote Police Station so that every person of Circle Bakote can have access to Police to help resolve problems. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohala_Bridge"