Sheikhupura

Mughal

Mughal Emperor Jahangir laid the foundations of Sheikhupura in 1607 near the older town of Jandiala Sher Khan, an important provincial town during the early to middle Mughal era.^[7] He also erected the nearby Hiran Minar, Sheikhpura's most renowned site, between 1607 and 1620 as a monument to his beloved pet deer, Mansiraj, at a time when the area served as a royal hunting ground for the Mughal Emperor.^[8] Jehangir laid the foundation of the Sheikhupura Fort in 1607, which is situated in the city's centre.

Nawab Kapur Singh Virk

Nawab Kapur Singh (1697–1753) was a prominent leader of the Sikh community in the early-to-mid 18th century.He was born in 1697, into a Virk Jat family.

His native village was Kaloke — at the time within the Lahore Subah of the Mughal Empire; today, that region corresponds to Sheikhupura district in present-day Punjab, Pakistan.

British

During British colonial rule, the area was under the rule of Raja Dhayan Singh,^[9] and during establishment of British colonial rule, Bhatti possessions that had been seized by the Sikhs were restored.^[10] The large area between the Chenab and Ravi rivers were initially consolidated into a single district with Sheikhupura serving as its first headquarters, until 1851.^[10] The area around Sheikhupura attained District status in 1919,^[10] with M.M.L. Karry serving as its first administrator.^[11]

Partition

On the eve of the Partition of British India, Sikhs made up 19% of the district's population. Despite the area's Muslim majority, Sikhs had hoped that the boundary commission would award the area to India, given the proximity of Sheikhupura to the city of Nankana Sahib - revered as the birthplace of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak.^[12] The city was spared the large-scale rioting that engulfed Lahore earlier in 1947, and the city's Sikh population did not shift to India before the Radcliffe Line that demarcated the border of the newly independent states of Pakistan and India was announced.^[12]

The Sikh population had not made arrangements to leave and remained trapped in the city until 31 August 1947.^[12] The city's Sacha Sauda refugee camp hosted upwards of 100,000 Sikh refugees who had come to the city after fleeing nearby Gujranwala and other surrounding areas earlier that year.^[12] Fierce violence erupted in the city, and an estimated 10,000 people were killed in Sheikhupura between 16 August and 31 August in communal rioting between Sikhs and Muslims.^[12]

Population

According to the 1998 Pakistan Census, the population of Sheikhupura city was recorded as 280,263. As per 2017 Census of Pakistan, the population of city was recorded as 473,129 with an increase of 68.82% in just 19 years.^[15]

According to the World Population Review, the city's population in 2026 is more than 602,000. This estimate includes Sheikhupura and its surrounding suburban areas.^[16]

Language

In the 2023 census, 88.96% of the population spoke Punjabi, 9.88% spoke Urdu, 0.69% spoke Pashto and 0.47% spoke Other languages from Pakistan (mostly Saraiki and Sindhi).^[17]