Poonch District

Poonch District is a district of that is divided between  and. The Pakistani part of is part of its  territory, whilst  is part of  state.

Ancient History
When invaded the lower Jhelum belt to fight Porus, this region was known as Dravabhisar. Based on the evidence, and evidence from 7th century  traveler , the districts of Rajaori, Poonch and Abhisara had been under the sway of the Republican  during  times.

Sovereign State
Around 850CE, Poonch became a sovereign state ruled by Raja Nar, who was basically a horse trader. Its name also appears in, a chronicle of written by. It was called Prontsa then. According to Rajtrangani Raja Trilochan Pal of Poonch gave a tough fight to Mahmood Ghazanavi who invaded this area in 1020. Ghazanavi failed to enter Kashmir, as he could not capture the fort of Lohara (modern day Loran, in district Poonch).

Mughal Era
In 1596, Mughal King Jahangir made Siraj-Ud-Din ruler of Poonch. Siraj-Ud-Din and his descendant Raja Shahbaz Khan, Raja Abdul Razak, Raja Rustam Khan and Raja Khan Bahadur Khan ruled this area up to 1792.

Modern Era


In 1819 this area was captured by Maharaja and it remained under the occupation of   of  till 1850.

In 1850, Raja Moti Singh who was son of Raja Dhayan Singh, the Prime Minister of Khalsa Darbar set up its separate principality known as Poonch state. Until 1935/36 Poonch remained a separate state, under the Khalsa Durbar. Then it was reduced to a  by Maharaja Hari Singh of. The period from 1850 to 1947 is considered as the Golden era of the history of Poonch. The Principality of Poonch obtained the status of a state from the  in 1901 during the reign of Raja. The rule of Raja, Baldev Singh, , and Raja  witnessed all round development of Poonch state. The historic Poonch fort was renovated and redesigned. Many other buildings were also constructed.

Division of Poonch
October 1947 changed it all. The s of Poonch always resented the oppressive policies of the Dogra Maharaja of Jammu, after he took charge of Poonch in 1936. At the time of partition, there were rumours that Muslims were being massacred in Jammu. It enraged the Poonchies and they intensified the struggle for independence from Jammu. A major part of the district went to Azad Kashmir. During the 1947-48 war between India and Pakistan, Poonch city was under attack of the rebel Poonchies, Pakistani tribals and Pakistan army for about one year. It was in the month of November 1948 that Poonch city was re-united with Indian-administered Kashmir.