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Kahuta (
Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
,
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' census-designated
city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
and
tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its adminis ...
in the
Rawalpindi District Rawalpindi District (Punjabi and ur, ) is a district located in the northernmost part of the Punjab province of Pakistan. Parts of the district form part of the Islamabad Rawalpindi metropolitan area. Rawalpindi city is the district capita ...
of Punjab Province,
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. The population of the Kahuta Tehsil is approximately 220,576 at the 2017 census. Kahuta is the home to the
Kahuta Research Laboratories The Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories, ( ur, ) or KRL for short, is a federally funded, multi-program national research institute and national laboratory site primarily dedicated to uranium enrichment, supercomputing and fluid mechanics. It ...
(KRL) which was founded to undertake the ''Kahuta Project'' as part of the atomic bomb project. Before the ''Kahuta Project'', the site was occupied by retired officers of Pakistan Armed Forces and contained a small public community, including a private high school.


Etymology

The name "Kahuta" was originated from the name of the tree which is extensively found there. The local name of the tree is "''koh''". It could also be named after the
Kahut Kahut often spelled as Kahout or Kahoot , is an agricultural jutt tribe found in Chakwal, Shahpur, Gujrat, Rawalpindi, Hazara and Jhelum districts of Pakistan. They gave their name to the Kahuta hills of Rawalpindi district and to the town o ...
tribe which is a prominent tribe in the region and in the surrounding regions also.


History

Kahuta was a small incorporated city until the 1970s when KRL was constructed by the
Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers "The Moving Spirit" , colors = , colors_label = Colours , march = , mascot = , equipment = , equipment_label = , ...
under
Engineering officer An engineering officer can be a Merchant Navy engineer or a commissioned officer with responsibility for military engineering, typically used in the British Armed Forces. In the Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's nava ...
Major-General
Zahid Ali Akbar Lieutenant General Zahid Ali Akbar ( ur, ; b. 1933) , is a former engineering officer in the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers, who oversaw the civil construction of the Army GHQ in Rawalpindi, and later directing the Engineering Research Labor ...
, Director of ''
Project-706 Project-706, also known as Project-786 was the codename of a research and development program to develop Pakistan's first nuclear weapons. The program was initiated by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1974 in response to the Indian nuc ...
''. During the 1960s and 1970s, Kahuta was inhabited by retired officers of the Pakistan Armed Forces. In the 1970s, the
Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...
was tasked by
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourt ...
to search for a remote location for carrying out atomic and weapon-testing experiments for the integrated atomic bomb project in 1976. The Uranium Coordination Board (UCB) headed by
Ghulam Ishaq Khan Ghulam Ishaq Khan ( ur, غلام اسحاق خان; 20 January 1915 – 27 October 2006), was a Pakistani bureaucrat who served as the seventh president of Pakistan, elected in 1988 following Zia's death until his resignation in 1993. He wa ...
financed the reconstruction of the site. Major-General Zahid Ali Akbar and later completed the drawings, surveying and measured the area aerially. Within the week, the whole site was acquired by the Ministry of Defence, and the army truckloads, heavy engineering vehicles arrived the next day to re-built the site. All incoming materials and research equipment were labeled as common items and engineering tools to conceal the true nature of their purpose. Scientists and engineers working and living in Kahuta were censored by the senior military officials. Soon, the site was classified and abandoned for public with only few allowed to resides. The
Engineering Research Laboratories The Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories, ( ur, ) or KRL for short, is a federally funded, multi-program national research institute and national laboratory site primarily dedicated to uranium enrichment, supercomputing and fluid mechanics. It ...
(now KRL) was established by
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourt ...
as a research government national facility under the Ministry of Defence.


Geography

Kahuta is situated in the Himalayan foothills in
Rawalpindi District Rawalpindi District (Punjabi and ur, ) is a district located in the northernmost part of the Punjab province of Pakistan. Parts of the district form part of the Islamabad Rawalpindi metropolitan area. Rawalpindi city is the district capita ...
of
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
's Punjab Province, approximately 30 km southeast of Pakistan's capital,
Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...
. There are many picnic spots like Punjpeer Rocks in Narar (Narh), Ling Stream and Badshah Peak in Sore Valley, Kotli Sattian, Azad Pattan, Tlaitar and Beyore Salitha,Nara matore. The area is noted for its wildlife and hunting. The region is also famous for its high mountains and many of the villagers live in the mountains. The Pothwari language is spoken in this region.


References

{{Neighbourhoods of Rawalpindi Populated places in Kahuta Tehsil Nuclear history of Pakistan Project-706 History of science and technology in Pakistan Cities in Rawalpindi District