History of Sialkot

Murray College, Sialkot was established in 1889. The railway branch from Wazirabad to Sialkot was extended to Jammu in 1890. The Sialkot-Narowal railway line was opened in 1915.

The city played an important role during the Pakistan Movement. The national poet of Pakistan, who spearheaded the movement for an independent country, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal was born in Sialkot in 1877. In May 1944, the historic Sialkot Convention was held here. This convention is widely regarded as the landmark event which catapulted the All India Muslim League into prominence in the British-Indian Punjab. This convention was host to such Muslim League luminaries as Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan, Chaudhry Naseer Ahmad Malhi, Khawaja Nazim-ud-Din, Sardar Abd-ur-Rab Nishtar, Mumtaz Ahmad Khan Daultana, Nawab Iftikhar Hussain Khan Mamdot and Maulvi Tamiz-ud-Din.

The predominantly Muslim population supported Muslim League and Pakistan Movement. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the minority Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India while the Muslim refugees from India settled in the Sialkot district. Most of the refugees have since settled and inter-married into the local population. Ever since, Sialkot has become one of the major industrial centres of Pakistan and is well known for its manufacture and export of surgical instruments, musical instruments, sports goods, leather goods, textile products and other light manufactures.

During the Indo-Pak war of 1965, Second Kashmir War in 1965, when Pakistani troops invaded Kashmir, the Indian Army counter attacked in the Sialkot Sector. The Pakistan Army was able to successfully defend the city and the people of Sialkot, who came out in full force to support the troops of the Pakistan Army to repel the Indian army. In fact, the armored battles in the Sialkot sector