Draft:Kashmiris in Pakistan

The Kashmiris in Pakistan, also referred to as Kashmiri-Pakistanis or Pakistani Kashmiris, are Pakistani citizens of full or partial ethnic Kashmiri heritage. From the early 1800s to 1990s, millions of ethnic Kashmiris began arriving in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from the Kashmir Valley, constituting major segments in Pakistani society.

Pre-Partition
Heavy commodifications taxation under the Sikh rule caused many Kashmiri peasants to migrate to the plains of Punjab. These claims, made in Kashmiri histories, were corroborated by European travelers. When one such European traveller, Moorcroft, left the Valley in 1823, about 500 emigrants accompanied him across the Pir Panjal Pass. The 1833 famine resulted in many people leaving the Kashmir Valley and migrating to the Punjab, with the majority of weavers leaving Kashmir. Weavers settled down for generations in the cities of Punjab such as Jammu and Nurpur. The 1833 famine led to a large influx of Kashmiris into Amritsar which was also under Sikh rule. Kashmir's Muslims in particular suffered and had to leave Kashmir in large numbers, while Hindus were not much affected. The emigration during the Sikh rule resulted in Kashmiris enriching the culture and cuisines of Amritsar, Lahore and Rawalpindi. Sikh rule in Kashmir ended in 1846 and was followed by the rule of Dogra Hindu maharajahs who ruled Kashmir as part of their princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.

A large number of Muslim Kashmiris migrated from the Kashmir Valley to the Punjab due to conditions in the princely state such as famine, extreme poverty and harsh treatment of Kashmiri Muslims by the Dogra Hindu regime. According to the 1911 Census there were 177,549 Kashmiri Muslims in the Punjab. With the inclusion of Kashmiri settlements in NWFP this figure rose to 206,180.

Scholar Ayesha Jalal states that Kashmiris faced discrimination in the Punjab as well. Kashmiris settled for generations in the Punjab were unable to own land, including the family of Muhammad Iqbal. Scholar Chitralekha Zutshi states that Kashmiri Muslims settled in the Punjab retained emotional and familial links to Kashmir and felt obliged to struggle for the freedom of their brethren in the Valley.

Common krams (surnames) found amongst the Kashmiri Muslims who migrated from the Valley to the Punjab include Butt,  Dar, Lone, Wain (Wani), Mir, Rathore.

Post-Partition
With the accession of Kashmir to the Indian state, Kashmiris began to initiate more migrations to Pakistan. The Neelam and Leepa Valleys in northern Azad Kashmir are home to a significant Kashmiri Muslim population, as these areas border the Kashmir Valley. Kashmiris who support their state's accession to Pakistan or had ties to pro-Pakistani separatist parties left their homes out of fear of persecution, settling on the Pakistani side of the border. Some of them came from places as distant as Srinagar.

There are also Kashmiri populations spread out across the districts of Muzaffarabad The first wave of Kashmiri refugees arrived in 1947–48 against the backdrop of the partition of British India. More refugees poured in during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, followed by a third wave in the 1990s as a result of the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir. These refugees included people from the Kupwara and Baramulla districts of Kashmir. Farooq Haider Khan, Azad Kashmir's prime minister, claimed that as many as 2.2 million people from Jammu and Kashmir sought refuge in Azad Kashmir between 1947 and 1989.

Kashmiris in Pakistani administered regions also held onto their roots in varying ways. Altaf Mir is a Kashmiri settler and singer from Muzaffarabad whose rendition of the classical Kashmiri poem, Ha Gulo, on Coke Studio Explorer remains widely popular and was the first Kashmiri song featured on the show. The city of Muzaffarabad is known for its Kashmiri shawls, which are an iconic product of Kashmir.

Kashmiri Muslims constituted an important segment of several Punjabi cities such as Sialkot, Lahore, Amritsar and Ludhiana. Following the partition of India in 1947 and the subsequent communal unrest across Punjab, Muslim Kashmiris living in East Punjab migrated en masse to West Punjab. Kashmiri migrants from Amritsar have had a big influence on Lahore's contemporary cuisine and culture. The Kashmiris of Amritsar were more steeped in their Kashmiri culture than the Kashmiris of Lahore. Ethnic Kashmiris from Amritsar also migrated in large numbers to Rawalpindi, where Kashmiris had already introduced their culinary traditions during the British Raj.