GUJAR KHAN: Some 15 kilometres north of Gujar Khan city, Pakka Khanpur Fort is the largest archaeological site in Gujar Khan tehsil.

Today the fort is surrounded by fields, its western and southern walls mostly destroyed. Its one north-facing gate and northern and eastern walls are still standing.

The fort is largely believed to have been built during the reign of Sher Shah Suri, who also built the larger Rohtas Fort in neighbouring Jhelum.

Pakka Khanpur Fort shares its name with a nearby village, and at one time this area was a significant centre of regional trade. It was destroyed twice by the Afghans, and also visited by the Mughal emperor Jehangir, who mentioned it in his memoirs Tuzuk-i-Jehangiri.

The fort also comes up in Hari Ram Gupta’s history of the Sikhs; in December 1796, when Shah Zaman Durrani marched to Lahore from Sarai Pakka Khanpur, who wrote to Ranjit Singh after skirmishes with the Sikhs.

Like Rohtas, Pakka Khanpur Fort is also populated, with more than two dozen homes in the compound as well as a large paved well.

It is believed that this fort was the garrison of Suri’s armies when he was confronting the Ghakkars in this region.

However, the fort is facing unending dismantling at the hands of its denizens. A visit to the fort found the main gate covered in dung cakes, which are used as fuel, while the small rooms used for soldiers’ trenches and cells for travellers have been turned into cattle pens.

The fort’s blocks and bricks have also been used to build houses, without any action by the district administration or the tourism or archaeology departments to restrict or stop damaging the historic site.

A local mediaperson, Syed Aal-i-Imran Naqvi, told Dawn that a documentary was aired on the fort on Pakistan Television due to his efforts.

He regretted that the fort’s destruction was carrying on unabated while no authority was stepping in to check the loss of national heritage. He said in any other country, such a monument would have been preserved for tourists and archaeology students.

Another resident of a neighbouring area said the fort should be evacuated and should no longer be populated because of the way it was being damaged. He said the government should give its resident alternate lands for homes, and the fort should be rehabilitated and maintained.

Punjab Archaeology Department Deputy Director (North) Mohammad Maqsood, when contacted, said thi site was not in his notice and may not be considered a protected site by the archaeology department.

He added that populated forts are facing perpetual damage and Rohtas Fort is in a similar situation, whose residents have damaged the monument in order to carry out reconstruction work. He claimed litigation and police cases were becoming a routine matter.

Mr Maqsood said the responsible authority would soon be dispatched to the fort to assess the possibility of declaring it a protected site.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2019