Lahore

Lahore is the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province. Before 1947 it was the political and cultural centre of the whole Punjab, and it holds some of the most important Sikh shrines now in Pakistan.

Key moments

• 1534: Guru Ram Das was born in Lahore. Gurdwara Janam Asthan Guru Ram Das in Chuna Mandi marks the place.
• 30 May 1606 (Jeth sudi 4, 1663 Bk): Guru Arjan Dev was martyred at Lahore. Gurdwara Dera Sahib near the Fort marks the place. The Encyclopaedia says Guru Hargobind established the shrine and Maharaja Ranjit Singh raised the present building.
• 1737: Bhai Mani Singh was martyred. Captured Sikhs were tortured to death at the horse market, Nakhas Chowk, where a Shahidganj now stands.
• 5 February 1762: the Vadda Ghallughara. The Encyclopaedia says the Sikhs lost over 20,000 men in a single day.
• 1760s: Sikh chiefs occupied Lahore. The Encyclopaedia gives 16 May 1764 for the Bhangi misl; after Ahmad Shah Abdali retook the city in December 1766 the Bhangi chiefs returned in July 1767 and ruled it for about thirty years.
• 7 July 1799: Ranjit Singh occupied Lahore and made it his capital. He was declared Maharaja in 1801.
• 1849: after the annexation Lahore stayed the provincial capital under the British.
• 1947: Lahore was allotted to Pakistan.

Today. Pakistan's Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), a statutory board of the government, manages Sikh and Hindu shrines, and the Encyclopaedia notes that Gurdwara Dera Sahib is one of the few gurdwaras in Pakistan that Sikh officiants have attended since 1947. The samadh of Maharaja Ranjit Singh stands near it, and Pakistan allows large groups of Sikhs to gather there on his death anniversary, 27 June. Indian jathas stayed at Gurdwara Dera Sahib during the November 2025 pilgrimage.

Sanctuary claims. India's government lists Babbar Khalsa International as a "terrorist" organisation and says Pakistan's intelligence service funds it; Islamabad denies this, as Al Jazeera reports. On 6 May 2023 Paramjit Singh Panjwar, head of the Khalistan Commando Force (Panjwar group), was shot dead by unidentified gunmen while walking in a park in Johar Town, Lahore, where he lived. The Tribune reported that he had gone to Pakistan in 1995 or 1996 and that India had listed him under its anti-terror law in July 2020. It quoted no Pakistani official acknowledging that Pakistan had sheltered him.