Teetwal (also spelt Tithwal) is a small border-village in Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is situated in Kupwara district, from the district headquarters of

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 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 Muzaffarabad (; ur, ) is the capital and largest city of Azad Kashmir, and the 60th largest in Pakistan. The city is located in Muzaffarabad District, near the confluence of the Jhelum and Neelum rivers. The district is bounded by the Pak ...

(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 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 Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru o ...

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 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 b ...

Sopore Sopore, known as Suyyapur in antiquity, is a city in the Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is north-west of Srinagar, and north-east from the city of Baramulla. Sopore Town has Asia's second largest fruit mandi (wholesale m ...

and

History

Prior to 1947 Partition of India, Teetwal used to be a commercial hub.

Geography

Teetwal village is located in India on the

(LOC) which separates the Jammu and Kashmir administered by India from the Pakistani-administered parts of Kashmir. As per the

Karachi Agreement The Karachi Agreement of 1949 was signed by the military representatives of India and Pakistan, supervised by the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan, establishing a cease-fire line in Kashmir following the Indo-Pakistani War of 1 ...

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 Gram Panchayat () is a basic village-governing institute in Indian villages. It is a democratic structure at the grass-roots level in India. It is a political institute, acting as cabinet of the village. The Gram Sabha work as the general bod ...

for the local governance. There is a school with 400 student, an irrigation canal built with the INR2,200,000 provided by the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

under the Operation Sadbhavana, and several bunkers to protect villagers from the shelling and firing by the

Pakistan Military The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consist of three formally uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are ...

.On the wrong side of fence

The Caravan ''The Caravan'' is an Indian English-language, long-form narrative journalism magazine covering politics and culture. History In 1940, Vishwa Nath launched ''Caravan'' as the first magazine from the Delhi Press; it went on to establish its ...

, 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 First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

. 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 ''"

-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 Sheikh ul-Alam International Airport also known as Srinagar Airport and Budgam Airbase, is an international airport serving Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is owned by the Indian Air Force, and the Airports Autho ...

located at a distance of respectively.

References

{{Villages in Kupwara district Villages in Kupwara district