Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan, at the mouth of the Khyber Pass. Hari Singh Nalwa took it for the Sikh kingdom: the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says that in 1834 he finally took Peshawar and annexed it to the Sikh dominions. In 1836 he built a fort at Jamrud, and on 30 April 1837 he died of wounds after fighting Afghan forces under Akbar Khan.

Gurdwara Bhai Joga Singh. It stands in the Jogan Shah neighbourhood of the walled city. ETPB documents cited by the Associated Press of Pakistan say it was built during Maharaja Ranjit Singh's reign. A Sikh quoted on AllAboutSikhs.com says Hari Singh Nalwa founded it, and its head, Sardar Shona Singh, says it was shut in 1947 and reopened in 1980 with the Pakistan government's permission. It is named for Bhai Joga Singh, a young Sikh of Peshawar who lived with Guru Gobind Singh at Anandpur; the Discover Sikhism site tells how the Guru recalled him in the middle of his wedding.

Key moments

• 2010: TIME reported some 500 Sikh families in Peshawar, the largest Sikh population in Pakistan. About 55 of the gurdwara's 120 pilgrim rooms held families from Orakzai, where, TIME reported, the Taliban gave Sikhs the choice of converting, leaving or paying a jizya of 12 million rupees.
• 15 May 2022: Ranjeet Singh, 38, and Guljeet Singh, 42, were shot dead at their spice shops on the outskirts of the city. The Peshawar police chief called it "an act of terrorism" and no group claimed it. Dawn's editorial said it showed the vulnerability of minority communities in the province and recalled the killing of a Sikh hakim in October 2021, which IS-Khorasan claimed.
• End of March 2023: Dyal Singh, 35, a Sikh shopkeeper, was shot dead by a motorcyclist at Garhi Ata Mohammad (Dawn).
• The ETPB has said it has hired a consultancy to plan restoration of Gurdwara Bhai Joga Singh and Gurdwara Bhai Biba Singh, and that both have CCTV cameras and round-the-clock security (APP).