| Official Name: | Abbottabad |
| Native Name Lang: | ur |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Mapsize: | 150px |
| Coordinates: | 34.1558°N 73.2194°W |
| Pushpin Map: | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa#Pakistan#Asia |
| Pushpin Mapsize: | 250 |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province##Location within Pakistan##Location within Asia |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: |  Pakistan |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Type2: | Division |
| Subdivision Name2: | Hazara |
| Subdivision Type3: | District |
| Subdivision Name3: | Abbottabad |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Established Date: | 1853 |
| Population Total: | 275,890 |
| Total Type: | City |
| Population As Of: | 2023 |
| Population Rank: | 40th, Pakistan |
| Founder: | James Abbott |
| Population Demonym: | Abbottabadi |
| Population Note: | Abbottabad Cantonment 138,311 |
| Population Footnotes: | [1] |
| Elevation M: | 1256 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Shuja Nabi[2] |
| Leader Title1: | Deputy Commissioner |
| Leader Name1: | Khalid Iqbal[3] |
| Blank Name Sec2: | Number of Union Councils |
| Blank Info Sec2: | 6[4] |
| Area Code: | 0992 |
| Area Code Type: | Calling code |
| Timezone1: | PKT |
| Utc Offset1: | +5 |
| Government Footnotes: | [5] |
| Governing Body: | District Government |
| Leader Party: | PTI |
Abbottabad is a city in the Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. It is the 40th largest city in the country and 6th largest in the province by population, and serves as the headquarter of its namesake tehsil and district. It is about 120km (80miles) north of Islamabad-Rawalpindi and 150round=5NaNround=5 east of Peshawar, at an elevation of 1256sigfig=4NaNsigfig=4. Kashmir lies a short distance to the east.
The name combines the name of the city founder, Major James Abbott, and the Persian ending ābād, meaning "settlement, town of". Abbottabad is one of two cities named after British army officers in Pakistan, the other being Jacobabad.[6]
Prior to the colonial era, the site upon which the city of Abbottabad is now located was a part of rural Hazara, between the mid-18th to the early 19th centuries the area was under the Durrani Empire,[7] and then came under Sikh rule in 1820 when the region was conquered by the Sikh Empire led by the Sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa. The city of Haripur was founded by him in 1822 and became the capital of Hazara prior to the establishment of Abbottabad.[8]
Following the Second Anglo-Sikh War, the British annexed the entire Punjab region up to Peshawar. Major James Abbott, a British military officer in the Bengal Army of the East India Company, became the first Deputy Commissioner of Hazara District in 1845, a position he held until April 1853[9] when he was succeeded by General John Reid Becher.[10] In Pakistan today, the role of Commissioner of Hazara Division is essentially equivalent to the British-era Deputy Commissioner of Hazara District.[11]
In January 1853, during his tenure as the Deputy Commissioner of Hazara, the city of Abbottabad was founded by Abbott, however it was then named Abbottabad (Abbott's town) at the suggestion of Herbert Edwardes a fellow military officer and administrator in the East India Company.[12] Following its foundation Abbottabad then replaced Haripur as Hazara's capital becoming the headquarters of Hazara District four years after the annexation of Punjab. At this time Hazara, and most of what is now Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was part of British India's Punjab Province.[13]
Abbott had left Haripur prior to founding Abbottabad and despite being ordered by Sir Frederick Currie to return to Haripur, Abbott said:[14]
"In Huzara I was a state Prisoner to the Sikh troops and garrison.... To change my residence was imperative if I was to remain master of Huzara.
Thus, according to Abbott, the reason for him to leave Haripur and then found the city of Abbottabad was for it to be a safe strategic location for him and his troops.
Major Abbott remained the first Deputy Commissioner of Hazara district from 1845 until April 1853, he is noted for having written a poem titled "Abbottabad", before his return to Britain, in which he wrote of his fondness for the town and his sadness at having to leave it. The poem, written in marble, is on display in Lady Garden Park in Abbottabad.[15] In 1849, Major Abbott, a Deputy Commissioner appointed by the British East Company, shifted Hazara Gojaran's headquarter from Haripur Gojaran to the newly established Abbottabad.
During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 the 4th Sikhs who had been stationed in Abbottabad had marched into Ludhiana to prevent rebels from Jullundur crossing the Sutlej.[16] In November 1867 following conflict with the Black Mountain tribes, the Khan of Agror was taken into custody by the British and sent to Abbottabad, since the First Black Mountain Expedition in 1850 there had been ongoing conflicts in that area.[17] After 1857, the province passed from East India Company rule to the British Raj - which was direct rule by the British crown, Abbottabad remained an important military cantonment.
In July 1868 John Frederick Foster[18] who was an Assistant-Surgeon in Her Majesty's 36th Regiment of Foot visited the town, he noted that "Abbottabad is a small cantonment on a large plain surrounded by bare mountains" and also that there was a notice in his room "warning travellers not to go unarmed" - additionally he noted that the town was the Headquarters of the Punjab Frontier Force.[19]
According to the 1881 census, the total population of Abbottabad was 4,189 which consisted of 2,151 Hindus, 1,649 Muslims and 306 Sikhs with 83 were listed as others. The population resided in a total of 918 houses. Nearly two-thirds of the population lived in the cantonment, and about a third in the civil station. The municipal revenue in 1881-82 was recorded as £383 with expenditure being £365.[20] In the 1890s British geologist Charles Stewart Middlemiss wrote that the "park-like almost English beauty of Abbottabad in the springtime never fails to strike the new-comer in contrast to the bare and dust-coloured panorama of the low country of the Punjab" - Middlemiss surveyed the area as part of his geological fieldwork in Hazara for the colonial era Geological Survey of India.[21]
In 1896 the presidency armies had been abolished, armies serving in Abbottabad then came under Punjab Command, in September 1899 (as part of this reorganisation) the 42nd Gurkha Rifle Regiment of Bengal Infantry arrived in the city.[22]
Abbottabad has been a staging point for the Black Mountain Expeditions of 1888 and 1891 - troops had been garrisoned in the city.[23]
On 9 November 1901 Lord Curzon, the British Governor-General of India, established the North-West Frontier Province from the north-western districts of The Punjab, this meant that Abbottabad was now a part of the newly formed province. That year the population of the town and cantonment was 7,764 with an average income of Rs. 14,900, this increased to Rs. 22,300 in 1903, chiefly derived from octroi. During this time chief public institutions were built such as the Albert Victor Unaided Anglo-Vernacular High School, the Municipal Anglo-Vernacular High School and the government dispensary. In 1911, the population had risen to 11,506 and the town contained four battalions of Gurkhas.[24]
In the early 20th century, Abbottabad became an important military cantonment and sanatorium, serving as the headquarters of a brigade in the Second Division of the Northern Army Corps.[25] The garrison consisted of four battalions of native infantry, of the Frontier Force (including the 5th Gurkha Rifles) and two native mountain batteries.[26]
On the 24th of August 1945 upon hearing of the death of Subhas Chandra Bose future Indian Prime Minister Nehru addressed a public meeting in the city Abbottabad where he reportedly paid tearful tribute to Bose, Nehru had arrived via the resort town of Nathia Gali earlier that day.[27]
Following the Announcement of Partition of the British Raj into the Dominion of Pakistan and the Dominion of India, a referendum was held in the NWFP to decide whether to join India or Pakistan - the result was in favour of joining Pakistan. In 1947, Pakistan Army's initial officer training academy, the Pakistan Military Academy, referred to by its acronym PMA was established in Abbottabad - Abbottabad continues to house this establishment today. In June 1948, the British Red Cross opened a hospital in Abbottabad to deal with thousands of injured people being brought in from Kashmir.[28]
In 1955, Abbottabad and the rest of the NWFP became a part of West Pakistan, but the NWFP province was once again established in 1970, and Hazara District and the two tribal agencies were merged to form the new Hazara Division with its capital at Abbottabad. The NWFP eventually became Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in 2010 after the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan was passed.
See main article: 2005 Kashmir earthquake.
In October 2005, Abbottabad was devastated by the Kashmir earthquake, although most of Abbottabad survived, many older buildings were destroyed or severely damaged,[29] despite this there was an influx of migrants from Azad Kashmir after the earthquake as Abbottabad was more secure.[30]
In 2009 and 2010 there was another influx of refugees from Swat District during military operations against militants as well as from Waziristan after the army launched major operations against the Taliban in 2009.
On 25 January 2011, Indonesian terrorist Umar Patek was arrested in Abbottabad. Patek, a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group, was wanted in connection with a deadly series of church bombings in Indonesia in 2000, and three attacks that killed 202 people in tourist districts of Indonesia in what became known as the Bali bombings.[31] [32]
See main article: Killing of Osama bin Laden.
On 2 May 2011, Abbottabad gained worldwide attention when U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in his compound in the city.[33] [34] In February 2012, nine months after bin Laden was killed, Pakistani authorities demolished the compound where Osama bin Laden had lived.[35] [36]
During a study of healthcare workers throughout the Hazara region it was revealed that quality of life for healthcare workers in Abbottabad had been "affected negatively" due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[37] On 21 December 2020, Abbottabad was recorded as having the highest Covid-19 positivity ratio in Pakistan.[38]
Asghar Khan, the first native commander of the Pakistan Airforce had settled in Abbottabad after retiring from the airforce, it was here that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto approached Asghar Khan, asking him to join his party, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Khan declined, stating he had no interest in politics however after Bhutto's arrest on 13 November 1968, Asghar Khan held a press conference in Lahore on 17 November,[39] where he openly criticised Field Marshal Ayub Khan. In his speech, Khan spoke of "graft, nepotism, corruption, and administrative incompetence are affecting the lives and happiness of millions". Khan had been asked by reporters about his role as chief of the air force when General Ayub Khan staged a coup d'état in 1958, Asghar said "I had a job to do, to run the Air Force and I continued to do this until my retirement. It wasn't a question of supporting any one".[40]
Asghar Khan had also been a long time supporter of the greater political rights in East Pakistan describing the situation there in 1968 as "colonial" when Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested Khan campaigned for his release.
In January 1972, Asghar Khan was the first to call for Pakistan's recognition of Bangladesh. In response, President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto called Khan a traitor and a few weeks later, Khan's home in Abbottabad was burned down. Despite a police investigation, the findings were never disclosed, and Khan's family was forced to live in a stable.[41] [42] [43]
In March 1977 Khan won the NA-13 Abbottabad-II seat after being elected to the National Assembly from Abbottabad in the 1977 elections. Khan was later arrested by Prime Minister Bhutto under martial law during a crackdown on nationwide protests against widely alleged electoral rigging. The Washington Post said Khan was "probably the most popular of the nine Alliance party leaders".
After negotiations between the opposition and Bhutto's government failed, General Zia-ul-Haq launched a coup d'état in July 1977 and placed Khan under house arrest in Abbottabad, where he remained until 1984. During this time, Amnesty International recognised him as a prisoner of conscience. Although Khan had earlier led the PNA movement against Bhutto who was executed in 1979, he publicly demanded Bhutto's release in a letter to Zia. In the letter, he also criticised the military regime for failing to hold promised elections within 90 days of the coup.
According to the 2023 census, Abbottabad had a population of 234,395 which was an increase over 200% since the 1998 census 25 years earlier. The population growth in the city is shown in the table below, the city was founded in 1863 and it can be seen in the 1881 census the population was 4,189 but there is then a significant jump in 1891 before a reduction by 1901, the population is noted to rise in every subsequent census with a noticeable jump in 1941 during WW2.
| 1881[44] [45] [46] | 1901[47] [48] | 1911[49] [50] | 1921[51] [52] | 1931[53] | 1941[54] | 2017[55] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,151 | 4,438 | 6,828 | 7,346 | 7,753 | 11,886 | 57 | |||||||||
| 1,649 | 2,904 | 3,729 | 5,007 | 7,026 | 12,192 | 243,665 | |||||||||
| 306 | 329 | 785 | 879 | 1,039 | 2,680 | ||||||||||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 93 | 164 | 388 | 346 | 298 | 1,811 | ||||||||||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 45 | |||||||||||||||
| Others | 83 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 368 | 92 | ||||||||
| Total population | 4,189 | 7,764 | 11,506 | 13,620 | 16,165 | 27,424 | 245,670 | ||||||||
According to the 2023 Census of Pakistan, Hindko is overwhelmingly dominant in Abbottabad City, spoken by 75.39% of the population, firmly establishing the city as one of the core urban centers of Hindko. Pashto forms the second-largest linguistic group at 14.08%. Urdu accounts for 5.28%, while Punjabi makes up 2.60% of the population, Kohistani 0.86% and an additional 1.79% of the population consists of a multitude of other languages of Pakistani.[56]
Abbottabad is located 64km from the town of Murree, 122km from Pakistan's capital Islamabad and 193km from the provincial capital Peshawar.[57] It is situated in the Orash Valley lying between 34°92′N latitude and 73°13′E longitude at an altitude of 1256m (4,121feet). To the north is the picturesque Kaghan Valley.[58]
Abbottabad has a humid subtropical climate, with mild to warm temperatures during the spring and autumn months, hot temperatures during June and July, and cool to mild temperatures during the winter. The temperature can rise as high as 38C during the mid-summer months and drop below -5C during the extreme cold waves. Snowfall occurs occasionally in December and January, though it is sparse, while heavy rainfall occurs during the monsoon season stretching from July to September and frequently cause flooding in lower lying parts of the city.
Abbottabad has been attracting tourists to the city since the colonial era, as it is a major transit point to all major tourist regions of Pakistan such as Nathia Gali, Ayubia and Naran. According to the Imperial Gazetteer of India, "the town is picturesquely situated at the southern corner of the Rash (Orash) plain, 1256m (4,121feet) above the sea".[26]
The Karakoram Highway, which traces one of the paths of the ancient Silk Road, starts from Hasan Abdal on the N5 and heads north passing through the city, eventually reaching Khunjerab Pass. The Karakorum Highway is a major attraction itself for its views. The Karakoram, Himalayas and the Hindu Kush ranges can be approached from Abbottabad, and it continues to be a transit city for tourists, serving as a base for visiting nearby places, such as Hunza, Gilgit, Skardu and Indus Kohistan, of the Karakoram Range.[59]
A £19M amusement park is under construction in the city on a 50acres site; it includes a zoo, adventure sports facilities, restaurants and artificial waterfalls.[60]
See main article: List of educational institutions in Abbottabad.
Abbottabad has a very healthy literacy rate approximately 56% on an average.[61] The city has a young demographic (ages 15–30) due to the large number of students who have come from across the country to study in its schools, for example PIPS, Army Burn Hall College, Army Public College Kakul and Abbottabad Public School.
The city has a wide variety of post-secondary institutions, such as Ayub Medical College, Frontier Medical College, COMSATS University of Science and Technology, and the University of Engineering & Technology.
Abbottabad is home to the Pakistan Military Academy, a coeducational federal service military academy that provides training to the officers of the Pakistan Army.[62] The academy has three training battalions and 12 companies. Another 2,000 guests each year, from over 34 countries, receive some training at PMA.
According to the Alif Ailaan Pakistan District Education Rankings 2014, Abbottabad is ranked 37 out of 146 districts in Pakistan in the quality of education. For facilities and infrastructure, the district is ranked 67 out of 146.[63] A detailed picture of the district's education performance is available online.[64]
Kay 2 TV is a local Hindko-language channel.[65] Daily newspapers include Roznama AAJ, Roznama Shamal, Kay 2 Times, Roznama Pine, Weekly Manzar, Daily Mahasib and the Hindko newspaper Chaita.
The Abbottabad Falcons was the professional cricket team of Abbottabad who played in the national Twenty20 and List A cricket tournaments. Sports facilities in the city include:
Abbottabad's main public transport consists of modified taxis, the city is also served by Daewoo Express and Niazi Express, the NATCO, Skyways and other bus services.
The nearest railway station is the Havelian railway station which is situated in the city of Havelian, which is the last and most northern station on the Pakistan Railways network. The station is approximately thirty minutes drive south from Abbottabad city centre.
