Teetwal (also spelt Tithwal) is a small border-village in

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 ...

, India. It is situated in Kupwara district, from the district headquarters of Kupwara and close to the

Line of Control The Line of Control (LoC) is a military control line between the Indian and Pakistanicontrolled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary, but serve ...

with Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Teetwal is connected to the rest of India via Tangdhar. The village from the beginning was inhabited by taga or tagga caste. Much before partition many of these families migrated to Muzaffarabad (now in Pakistan) and to low terrains of undivided India. These taga still use teetwal as their surname. These taga or Tyagi were the founders of the teetwal village spread up to the uppermost part of the hills and to the bank's of kishan ganga river and to the parts of

Neelum valley 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 Muzaffarabad of now Pakistan. The village zamindari was in the Royal state of Kashmir. The main crop was walnut sheep wool and heard rearing. In the part of UP near Meerut, garh Mukteshwar and Haryana these tyagis originally called taga, a warrior community still call them teetwal although they use Tyagi as their surname. These tagga are not Brahmins as other they are khatriyas as in the teetwal area there were only a few brahmin families were there rest majority was Dogra khatriyas. The clan or Kabila of these teetwals later migrated to other parts of undivided India including Pakistan. Thus the village population dropped to few hundred. The Tamples and one gurudwara was demolished by kabilaii attack by invaders in 1948. Much before this the Hindu and Sikh community migrated to other nearby and far away places like Baramulla, Sopore and Kupwara.

History

Prior to

1947 Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

, Teetwal used to be a commercial hub.

Geography

Teetwal village is located in India on the

(LOC) which separates the

administered by India from the Pakistani-administered parts of Kashmir. As per the Karachi Agreement signed by India and Pakistan in 1949, no construction is permitted within 500 yards of zero line on LOC and this "no construction zone" is considered a "no man's land" which is secured by both countries with landmines within their respective areas. India has constructed an Anti-Infiltration Obstacle System (AIOS) along the 734 km of LOC. AIOS is a three-tiered fencing system with checkposts and wire fences where villagers are given passage based on the smart card based identity cards issued by the Indian Army. Teetwal is among the villages which lie between the landmined zero point on LOC and the 3 tiers of AIOS.

Administration

Teetwal has an elected gram panchayat for the

local governance Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

. There is a school with 400 student, an irrigation canal built with the INR2,200,000 provided by the Indian Army under the

Operation Sadbhavana Indian Army operations in Jammu and Kashmir include security operations such as Operation ''Rakshak'', which began in 1990, Operation ''Sarp Vinash'' in 2003 and Operation ''Randori Behak'' in ''2020''. Other operations include humanitarian m ...

, and several bunkers to protect villagers from the shelling and firing by the Pakistan Military.On the wrong side of fence
The Caravan, 01 April 2021.

Demographics

According to the

2011 census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, Teetwal has 187 households. The literacy rate of Teetwal village was 73.75% compared to 67.16% of Jammu and Kashmir. In Teetwal, Male literacy stands at 89.89% while the female literacy rate was 55.67%.

Transport

Road

Teetwal in India, is right on the Line of Control between India and Pakistan, is connected to Tangdhar in India via the ''"Gundishat Bridge-Teetwal Road"''. NH 701 which begins at Tangdhar, provides further connectivity to other places in Jammu and Kashmir and beyond in India.

Tithwal international bridge

Tithwal bridge is one of the five crossing points along the Line of Control between India and Pakistan. It was first constructed in 1931, but was destroyed in the First Kashmir war. However, in 1988, the bridge was reconstructed jointly by India and Pakistan. This bridge connects the ''"Srinagar-Sopore-Tangdhar-Teetwal road"'' in India to the ''" Muzaffarabad-Nausadda- Kundal Shahi road"'' in Pakistan.

Rail

The nearest railway stations to Teetwal are

Baramulla railway station Baramulla railway station is situated in outskirts of baramulla town nearly about 5km from main town. Transport facility is available in working hours from main town baramulla to railway station and vice versa. It is the first station of 130&nb ...

and

Sopore railway station Sopore railway station is situated in the outskirts of Sopore town. It lies on Northern Railway Network Zone of Indian Railways. It is one of the northernmost station of Indian Railways. Location The station is located at Amargrah about 2 km f ...

116 km away, both are on Baramulla-Sopore-Srinagar-Jammu railway line and these are reachable by a 3.5 hour drive by road from Tangdhar.

Air

The nearest airport is Srinagar International Airport located at a distance of respectively.

References

{{Villages in Kupwara district Villages in Kupwara district