Kasur

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title: "Kasur" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["populated-places-in-kasur-district", "kasur-district", "populated-places-in-punjab,-pakistan", "cities-in-punjab-(pakistan)"] topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasur" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
name	Kasur
other_name	Qasūr
native_name
settlement_type	City
image_skyline	Kasur cityscape.jpg
imagesize	250px
image_caption	Kasur Museum on the Lahore–Kasur Road
image_blank_emblem	Kasur Muncipal Committee Emblem.svg
blank_emblem_type	Municipal Committee Emblem
blank_emblem_alt	Municipal Committee Kasur
mapsize	100px
coordinates
pushpin_map	Punjab Pakistan#Pakistan
pushpin_label_position	left
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	Pakistan
subdivision_type1	Province
subdivision_name1	Punjab, Pakistan Punjab
subdivision_type2	Division
subdivision_name2	Lahore
subdivision_type3	District
subdivision_name3	Kasur
leader_title1	Chairman District Council
leader_name1	None (Vacant)
leader_title2	Deputy Commissioner
leader_name2	Muhammad Asif Raza (PAS)
leader_title3	AC Tehsil Kasur
leader_name3	Aurangzeb Sandhu
leader_title4	AC Tehsil Pattoki
leader_name4	Osama Sharoon Niazi
leader_title5	AC Tehsil Chunian
leader_name5	Adnan Badar
leader_title6	AC Tehsil K.R.K
leader_name6	Raja Muhammad Qasim Mehboob
-->	elevation_m
population_footnotes
population_total	510,875
total_type	City
population_rank	22nd, Pakistan
population_as_of	2023
timezone1	PST
utc_offset1	+5
area_code_type	Calling code
area_code	049
blank_name_sec2	Number of Union councils 112
website
founder	Kheshgi dynasty
population_demonym	Kasuri
native_name_lang	ar
pushpin_overlay	Pakistan Punjab relief map(pre-2022).svg
pushpin_relief	y
::

::callout[type=note] the city ::

Kasur (Punjabi / ; ; also romanized as Qasūr; from pluralized Arabic word Qasr meaning "palaces" or "forts") is a city to the south of Lahore, in the Pakistani province of Punjab. The city serves as the headquarters of Kasur District. Kasur is the 16th largest city in Punjab and 24th largest in Pakistan, by population. It is also known for being the burial place of the 17th-century Sufi-poet Bulleh Shah. It is farther west of the border with neighboring India, and bordered to Lahore, Sheikhupura and Okara Districts of Punjab. The city is an aggregation of 26 fortified hamlets overlooking the alluvial valleys of the Beas and Sutlej rivers.

Etymology

Kasur derives its name from the Arabic and Persian word qasur (قصور), meaning "palaces," or "forts." According to a legend, Kasur was founded by, and named for, Prince Kusha of the Ramayana, son of the Hindu deities Rama and Sita. According to that account, the city was named Kashawar along with its neighbouring city, Lahore which was named Lahawar. Historical records reject an ancient founding of the city and date it to 1525, when it was found as a fortified settlement.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Mazar_Shah_Kamal_Chisti_-_Kasur.JPG" caption="The hilltop shrine of ''Shah Kamal Chisti'' is a popular shrine in Kasur."] ::

Early

The Kasur region was an agricultural region with forests during the Indus Valley civilization. The Kasur region was ruled variously by the Maurya Empire, Indo-Greek kingdom, Kushan Empire, Gupta Empire, White Huns, Kushano-Hephthalites and Kabul Shahi kingdoms. The region is also said to have been visited by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang in 633 AD. Alexander Cunningham writes about his visit describing the place filled with tombs, mosques, and thickly covered with ruins. The city which is most commonly associated with Kasur was described as being situated somewhere on the right bank of the Beas (Sutlej) opposite to the city of Lahore.

Arrival of Islam

Ghaznavids

In 1005 CE, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, took over the region under the Ghaznavid dynasty. This led to the introduction of Islam in the Northern Punjab area, after being conquered. Sufi missionaries were sent to the region in order to preach Islam which made the Punjab region predominantly Muslim. The city was later under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals.

Kheshgi Dynasty

Kasur was established as a city by the Kheshgi tribe of Pashtuns from Kabul who had migrated to the region in 1525 from Afghanistan during the reign of Babur and built several small forts in the area, establishing the Kheshgi chieftaincy. The city was built as an aggregation of about twelve fortified hamlets, known as kots (کوٹ) forming a considerable town. The 12 mahallahs (abodes) were built by the order of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, and named after the heads of various Pashtun families. Some of these forts have been severely damaged over time.

Under Mughal rule, the city flourished and was notable for commerce and trade. It became the home of the Sufi saint and poet, Bulleh Shah, who is buried in a large shrine in the city. After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the Kasur region fell into a power vacuum. Kasur was captured by Ahmad Shah Durrani of the Durrani Empire.

Sikh

The Sikhs sacked the city in 1747 under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, and again in 1763 after Durrani shifted to Afghanistan. The Sikh Empire under Ranjit Singh, captured the city in 1807 in the Battle of Kasur. During the First Anglo-Sikh War, the city was occupied by Company forces on 10 February 1846.

British

During the British Raj, the irrigation canals were built that irrigated large areas of the Kasur District. Communal disturbances between Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims erupted in 1908 over the issue of meat sales. Riots erupted following the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on 13 April 1919, leading to the destruction of civic infrastructure, including the city's railway station. Martial law was imposed on 16 April 1919 in response to the riots.

Modern

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Refugee_at_Balloki,_Kasur_during_partition_of_India.jpg" caption="Refugees at Balloki, Kasur during the [[Partition of British India]] in 1947"] ::

After the formation of Pakistan in 1947, the minority Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India, while Muslim refugees migrated from India and settled in Kasur. Kasur emerged as a major centre of leather tanning after independence, and is home to 1/3rd of Pakistan's tanning industry.

Kasur is one of the biggest market and trading hub in the country of hides collection and leather tanning and processing. In recent times, hide traders in Kasur were engaged in smuggling donkey hides, a medicinal demand, to China via Karachi Port.

In January 2018, two protestors were killed in rioting over the rape and murder of Zainab Ansari, a seven-year-old girl. There had been 12 similar murders in the past two years, five of which have been linked to one suspect, leading to widespread anger at police failures.

In November 2020, Russia sponsored a 1,122-km high pressure RLNG pipeline from Port Qasim, Karachi to Kasur. In May 2021, Islamabad and Moscow agreed to change the name of the North-South Gas Pipeline Project to "Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline".

Geography

Kasur is bordered to the north by Lahore, by India to the south and east, it also has borders with Okara and Nankana Sahab district. The city is adjacent to the border of Ganda Singh Wala, a border with its own flag-lowering ceremony.

Ecoregion

Kasur is situated in a subtropical thorn woodland biome (Northwestern thorn scrub forests) and in the Deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion according to the World Wide Fund for Nature's map of ecological regions in the world.

Climate

Kasur has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSh), bordering a humid subtropical climate (Koppen: Cwa). Kasur has extremes of climate; the summer season begins from April and continues till September. June is the hottest month. The mean maximum and minimum temperature for this month are about 45 C and 27 C respectively. The winter seasons lasts from November to February. January is the coldest month. The mean maximum and minimum temperatures for the coldest month are 22 C and 0 C respectively. With rainfall towards the end of June, monsoon conditions appear and during the following two and a half months the rainy season alternates with sultry weather. The winter rain falls during January, February and March, ranging from 23 mm to 31 mm. Water logging and salinity have affected a large area of the district, making the underground water brackish.

|source 1 = MyWeather2 |source 2 = Weather Spark

Demographics

Population

The population of Kasur is 510,875 as of 2023. The principal tribes residing here include the Rajput, Jats, Arains, Dogars, Ansari, Sheikh, Pashtuns etc. Among them there are also a concentration of Kashmiris who had migrated earlier, during partition. There are also Moeens or artisans; they include Christians, blacksmiths (Lohar), carpenters (Tarkhan), ceramicists (Kumhar), barbers, weavers etc. ::data[format=table]

Census	Population
1972	101,295
1981	155,523
1998	245,321
2017	358,296
2023	510,875
::

Religion

The population in Kasur is predominantly Muslim with some small Christian and Hindu minorities. In a census conducted by the Office of the Census Commissioner in 1951, the result was that 96% of the population of Kasur was Muslim with 0.004% being Hindu minorities and 0.034% being Christian minorities.

::data[format=table title="Religious groups in Kasur City (1881−2017){{efn|1881-1941: Data for the entirety of the town of Kasur, which included Kasur Municipality.{{rp|32}}|name="KasurCity1881to1941"}}"] | Religious group | 1881 | 1891 | 1901 | 1911 | 1921 | 1931 | 1941 | 2017 | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Total population | 17,336 | 20,290 | 22,022 | 24,783 | 31,018 | 46,815 | 53,101 | 488,579 | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Islam [[File:Star and Crescent.svg|15px]] | 13,852 | | 15,406 | | 16,257 | | 18,588 | | 22,290 | | 36,658 | | 39,295 | | 469,635 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hinduism [[File:Om.svg|15px]] | 3,074 | | 4,413 | | 5,327 | | 5,291 | | 7,333 | | 8,251 | | 10,752 | | 13 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sikhism [[File:Khanda.svg|15px]] | 242 | | 382 | | 295 | | 631 | | 987 | | 1,529 | | 2,034 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jainism [[File:Jain_Prateek_Chihna.svg|15px]] | 168 | | 89 | | 97 | | 169 | | 265 | | 144 | | 452 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Christianity [[File:Christian cross.svg|15px]] | | | 0 | | 43 | | 101 | | 141 | | 227 | | 562 | | 18,719 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Zoroastrianism [[File:Faravahar.svg|15px]] | | | 0 | | 3 | | 3 | | 2 | | 6 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ahmadiyya [[File:Liwa-e-Ahmadiyya_1-2.svg|15px]] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 212 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Others | 0 | | 0 | | 0 | | 0 | | 0 | | 0 | | 6 | | 0 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::

Languages

| caption = Languages of Urban Kasur Tehsil (2023) | value1 = 88.64 | label1 = Punjabi | color1 = crimson | value2 = 6.10 | label2 = Urdu | color2 = green | value3 = 4.65 | label3 = Mewati | color3 = orange | value4 = 0.61 | label4 = Others | color4 = silver According to the 2023 Census of Pakistan, Kasur is overwhelmingly Punjabi-speaking. Punjabi is the dominant language, spoken by 88.64% of the population. This is followed by Urdu, spoken by 6.10%, and Mewati, which accounts for a significant minority at 4.65%, and an additional 0.61% of the population spoke other languages of Pakistan (mostly Pashto and Sindhi).

Notable people

Ram Nath Chawla, Indian Pilot
Aseff Ahmad Daula, former Foreign Minister
Bawa Lal Dayal, 14th-century saint
Irshad Ahmed Haqqani, journalist, writer
Noor Jehan, singer and actress
Ahmad Raza Khan Kasuri, former member of National Assembly of Pakistan
Fauzia Kasuri, a Pakistani politician and women's activist
Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, former Foreign Minister
Mahmud Ali Kasuri, a Pakistani politician, lawyer and human rights activist
Nawab Muhammad Ahmed Khan Kasuri, Pakistani judge, allegedly assassinated by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, classical vocalist of British India
Barkat Ali Khan, classical vocalist of British India
Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Muslim scholar and author
Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan former speaker Punjab assembly
Yousuf Khan, actor
Hafiz Ghulam Murtaza, spiritual murshid of Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah
Sardar Asif Nakai, Member of the Punjab Provincial Assembly
Sardar Talib Hassan Nakai, Member of National Assembly of Pakistan
Najam Sethi, journalist, writer, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman
Bulleh Shah, Sufi saint and spiritual poet
Pran Kumar Sharma, Indian cartoonist
Basit Jehangir Sheikh, Politician, youngest founder member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (P.P.P)
Fateh Muhammad Sial, first Ahmadi missionary sent from India

Notes

References

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