Attock Fort situated about 100 km west of Islamabad on the left bank of the Indus was completed in 1583 under the supervision of Khawaja Shamsuddin Khawafi a minister of Emperor Akbar. The Mughal caravan sarai outside the fort, on the G T Road, was also built during this period.

The fort, though an excellent tourist attraction, is used mostly for detaining political prisoners and is a restricted site for the general public. Situated at a very scenic location, if developed properly, it can become a very attractive tourist site.

History

A marble slab inscription set above the inner north gateway of Attock Fort bears the completion date 991 AH (1583 AD). The work was supervised by Shamsuddin Khawafi. The fort is purely a military post designed to hold the river crossing and guard the bridge of boats.

Structure

The fortifications are built mostly of local shady rock set in thick lime mortar. For arches, vaulting, domes, and the external string-course, small lakhauri brick has been used. The original gateways are of sandstone resembling that found at Taraki in Jhelum District.

An interesting feature of the fortifications is a narrow gallery contrived high up in the wall to give the defenders head and back cover. The greater part of the gallery has a vaulted roof, but in one stretch, thick, flat roofing slabs replace the brick vaulting. The battlements, loop-holes and machicolations bear evidence of changes to meet new needs arising from changing armaments.

There are no old buildings in the interior except for some underground chambers in the upper part near the modern Delhi Gate. These are inaccessible, but traces of water channels and reservoirs have been observed in one of them, and they appear to have been cool chambers for summer use.

ATTOCK FORT, 1849

Engraving published in The Illustrated London News, 10 March 1849.

In 1831, William Moorcroft was given express permission by Ranjit Singh to tour the fort and noted this informative description of its interior:

'Proceeding from the serai to the gateway on the north, along a perfectly good road, unprovided with any defenses, we entered into a small projecting court, about twenty yards long, in which Shuja-al-mulk was confined by Jehandad Khan, after he was driven from Afghanistan.

From hence we passed through another gate into the bazar, a narrow lane of shops, chiefly for the sale of provisions, and along this we conducted to the opposite or southern gateway, which opened upon the side of the hill immediately above the ferry over the Indus.

The gates of the fort are lofty and large, and the walls are of the same description as those of Rotas, thick, crenated, and pierced with loopholes: the direction of the bazar is parallel with the river, and the bazar is four hundred paces long: between it and the river front are houses, and at the south-west angle a bastion projects into the stream:
on the side of the bazar, farthest from the river, the fort contracts and extends in the form of an irregular parallelogram, about five hundred yards to the east. The interior is discernible from the right bank of the river, and the eastern end is commanded by hills of greater elevation than that on which it stands.

Opposite to its southern face, and divided from it by a ravine which descends to the bank of the river, stands a petty village, on a level with the gateway. On the right bank of the river, and within musketshot of the southern postern of the fort is the village of Khairabad, defended on the west by a mud re doubt, and by several small stone buildings, intended as stations for infantry, erected on different points of a ridge of row hills, about a hundred yards to the westward; the most remote is within range of artillery from the fort, and perfectly commands the latter. This is the case, however, with even the road to Peshawar, on the Khairabad side, and it would not be necessary to erect batteries on the hills. The fort of Attok, however impregnable it may be to Sikhs or Afghans, could oppose no resistance whatever to European engineers.' (Moorcroft (1841; 1979 edition), II, 323-5.)

In the event, on the very day after this particular illustration was published in London, over 6000 miles away at a spot near Attock, the Sikhs formally surrendered their weapons to Major-General Gilbert on 11 March 1849, and the fort was yielded without a skirmish to the British.

Attock Fort: bad memoirs for PMs

Once the most important cantonment of the Royal British Army, Attock has always proved unfavourable for prime ministers and their families. Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan was the first from Attock who was elected prime minister of the United Punjab under the British rule. He was elected from Wah, then a tehsil of Attock (Campbellpur) district.

Sir Sikandar's son, Sardar Shaukat Hayat, faced the wrath of Gen Ayub Khan for supporting Ms Fatima Jinnah. The general separated Wah, a stronghold of the Hayat family, from Attock and included it in the Rawalpindi division.

The Sharifs and Bhuttos also do not have pleasant memories of Attock. Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is still facing corruption references at the accountability courts. He has been in jail for the last over seven years, spending almost half of the period in the Attock Fort.

Former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, who had registered dozens of cases against Mr Zardari and sent him to Attock Fort, suffered the same fate and was imprisoned in the fort after his ouster on October 12, 1999.

His brother, former Punjab chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif, and elder son Hussain Nawaz were also kept in the fort in separate barracks and faced trials at the accountability court set up in the fort.

The fort is located in the middle of a jungle where deadly snakes and scorpions are common. According to reports, once a deadly snake crept into Nawaz Sharif's cell and was about to bite him when the security guard killed the venomous reptile.

Besides, renowned political figures including former NWFP chief minister Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, ex federal communications minister Azam Khan Hoti, MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar have enjoyed the traditional hospitality of the historic fort.

But Shaukat Aziz will never forget Attock which crowned him after he escaped a suicidal attack in which eight people lost their lives. "He will definitely try to improve the lot of his voters by launching development projects in the area," analysts say. Perhaps, Mr Aziz will also think of putting an end to detaining political leaders in the Attock Fort, they hope.

See also

Attock

References

http://www.tourism.gov.pk/attock_fort_nwfp.htm

http://rpakistan.tripod.com/historic_pakistan/attock/attock.htm

http://attocknews.com/content/view/162/168/

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=21363