Muzaffarabad (; ur, ) is the capital and largest city of

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger K ...

, and the 60th largest in Pakistan. The city is located in

Muzaffarabad District The Muzaffarabad District ( ur, ) is one of the 10 districts of Pakistan's dependent territory of Azad Kashmir. The district is located on the banks of the Jhelum and Neelum rivers and is very hilly. The total area of the Muzaffarabad District ...

, near the confluence of the

Jhelum Jhelum (Punjabi and ur, ) is a city on the east bank of the Jhelum River, which is located in the district of Jhelum in the north of Punjab province, Pakistan. It is the 44th largest city of Pakistan by population. Jhelum is known for p ...

and Neelum rivers. The district is bounded by the Pakistani province of

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...

in the west, the

Kupwara Kupwara is a town and a municipal council in Kupwara district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Municipal council Kupwara is an Urban Local Body with 13 elected members (also in Delimitation in progress for wards), which adm ...

and

Baramulla Baramulla (), also known as Varmul () in Kashmiri, is a town and a municipality in the Baramulla district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is also the administrative headquarters of the Baramulla district. It is on the ...

districts of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

n-administered

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

in the east, and the

Neelum District The district of Neelum (spelt also ''Neelam''; ur, ) is the northernmost of 10 districts located within the Pakistani-administered territory of Azad Kashmir. Taking up the larger part of the Neelam Valley, the district has a population of ar ...

in the north.

History

Muzaffarabad was founded in 1646 by

Sultan Muzaffar Khan Sultan Muhammad Muzaffar Khan () was a chief of the Bomba Tribe. He is the namesake for the city of Muzaffarabad in present-day Azad Kashmir. Khan united various hill tribes near the Kashmir– Hazara border region and convinced them to settle ...

, chief of the Bomba tribe who ruled

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

. Khan also constructed the

Red Fort The Red Fort or Lal Qila () is a historic fort in Old Delhi, Delhi in India that served as the main residence of the Mughal Emperors. Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned construction of the Red Fort on 12 May 1638, when he decided to shift ...

that same year for the purpose of warding off incursions from the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

2005 earthquake

The city was near the

epicenter The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

of the

2005 Kashmir earthquake The 2005 Kashmir earthquake occurred at on 8 October in Pakistani-administered Azad Kashmir. It was centred near the city of Muzaffarabad, and also affected nearby Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and some areas of Indian-administered Jammu an ...

, which had a magnitude of 7.6 M_w. The earthquake destroyed about 50% of the buildings in the city (including most government buildings) and is estimated to have killed up to 80,000 people in the Pakistani-controlled areas. , the

Pakistani government The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territories, ...

's official death toll was 87,350, while other estimates have put the death toll at over 100,000.

Administrative subdivisions

The district of Muzaffarabad is administratively divided into 2

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its adminis ...

s, which are subdivided into 25 union councils. * Muzaffarabad * Pattika (Naseerabad)

Climate

Transport

The nearest railway station is located in the

Rawalpindi District Rawalpindi District (Punjabi and ur, ) is a district located in the northernmost part of the Punjab province of Pakistan. Parts of the district form part of the Islamabad Rawalpindi metropolitan area. Rawalpindi city is the district capita ...

of Pakistani Punjab.Google Maps
Maps.google.co.uk. Retrieved on 3 July 2012.

Notable people

* Anam Najam, medical doctor and psychiatrist

Gallery

Notes

References

External links

Government official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muzaffarabad Capitals of Pakistan Tehsils of Muzaffarabad District Hill stations in Pakistan Kabul Shahi Kashmir 2005 Kashmir earthquake Populated places established in 1646