Qiladar

Qiladar (Urdu: قلعہ دار) is a small historic village, in Gujrat District in Punjab, Pakistan, situated some 25 km west-ward, from main Gujrat city at the bank of Upper Jhelum Canal.

No one knows who historically inhabited this village; neither any history book has any mention of Qiladar. Un-written stories, common among the people, however, tell how a bandit named Thakar Ketee Singh had managed to establish his rule in and around this area in 16th century AD. He made his abode on a mound which is now the central point of the village. People use to call this mound as Thakar Dawara. He was very cruel, as the folk stories goes, and his main source of income was plundering in adjacent areas especially muslim majority dwellings. Mughal emperor Jahangir (1569–1627) had discussed, in his memoir Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri, many such bandits and clans who made the writ of Mughal empire confined only to the fort in Gujrat, made by Akbar. To redress the sufferings, Prince Khurram, then governor of Lahore province (later titled Shah Jahan at his emperorship) honored Mirza Bazan Baig with all this land and made him the Qiladar (an honorary designation of that time) in 1620. Bazan Baig, a cousin of Aurangzaib, was married to princess Ladli Bano. The real royal order of qiladari and his Nikah Nama was available in the personal library of Moulana Muhammad Alam, a worthy son of Qiladar.

Mirza Bazan Baig pruned the area from those bandits, constructed a fortress and established the order. He is usually portrayed as a revered person in local folk stories. He also constructed a beautiful mosque besides a madrassa. The mosque was styled in Mughal architecture; three domes, with a bigger at the center, over the main praying area.

Later in Sikh era (1799–1839), a fire temple was being built by Dewan Dena Nath. It was a beautiful building built with white marble. There is also a Hindu temple, Dhottee Sahib, build in 1884. Both of these temples, were also made with religious schools.

Moulana Khan Muhammad, Moulana Muhammad Alam, Dr. Ahmed Hussain Qureshi, are a few worth mentioning sons of the soil.