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Muridke مریدکے | |
|---|---|
City | |
  Chand Bagh School ground at night | |
  Muridke  Muridke | |
| Coordinates:31°48′07″N74°15′18″E / 31.802°N 74.255°E /31.802; 74.255 | |
| Country |  Pakistan |
| Province | Punjab |
| Division | Lahore |
| District | Sheikhupura |
| Elevation | 205 m (673 ft) |
| Population | |
• City | 254,291 |
| • Rank | 37rd, Pakistan |
| Time zone | UTC+5 (PST) |
Muridke (Punjabi /Urdu:مریدکے), is a city and headquarters ofMuridke Tehsil ofSheikhupura District in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the37th most populous city of Pakistan as well 25th of theprovincePunjab. Muridke is a commercial area situated near the city ofLahore, at an elevation of 205 m (675 ft).[2]
It is 215 meters above sea level, with the land around being largely flat.[2][3] The area is largely agricultural and is serviced by nearby canals.[4][5]
The average temperature is 23 °C. The hottest month is June, at 39 °C, and the coldest is January, at 7 °C. The average rainfall is 955 millimetres (37 in) per year. The wettest month is September, at 289 millimetres (11 in) of rainfall, and the driest is November, at 11 millimetres (0.5 in).[2][6][5]
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| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1951 | ... | — |
| 1961 | 6,757 | — |
| 1972 | 18,507 | +9.59% |
| 1981 | 35,419 | +7.48% |
| 1998 | 111,951 | +7.00% |
| 2017 | 166,652 | +2.12% |
| 2023 | 254,291 | +7.30% |
| Sources:[7] | ||
According to2023 census, Muridke had a population of 254,291. The city's population increased nearly ninefold between 1972 and 2017, from 18,507 to 166,652. Between 1998 and 2017, average annual growth was 2.1%, slightly lower than the national average of 2.4%.[8][9]
Chand Bagh School is aprivateboarding school forboys in Muridke. It is situated on the Muridke-Sheikhupura Road. It follows theCambridge International Examination system.[10]
Muridke is known for being home to the Markaz-e-Taiba, the headquarters ofMarkaz Dawa wal Irshad (MDI) orJamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD),[a] the parent organisation of the militant groupLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), located in the suburb ofNangal Sahdan.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20] The Markaz is a large 200-acre complex that has a range of infrastructure established byHafiz Muhammad Saeed in 1990.[21][20][22]Osama bin Laden, the former leader ofAl-Qaeda, is believed to have contributed approximately PKR 10 million (roughly USD 100,000 at the time) towards the development of the complex.[23] The complex includes the Umm al-Qura Mosque, amadrasa, a religious preaching centre, residential quarters, a school, a hospital, a market, a garment factory, an iron factory, a woodwork factory, a stable, a swimming pool, a fishfarm, agricultural tracts and various administrative buildings.[24][21][25][26][27] While it presents itself as a religious and educational institution, multiple international intelligence assessments and security reports have identified it as a hub for indoctrination,militant training and terrorist recruitment.[20] In 2009, following theMumbai attacks, the Punjab government took over the complex, and JuD continued to operate from there.[28] The federal and provincial governments in Pakistan continued to allocate funds to the organisation.[21]
The complex was targeted in an airstrike conducted by theIndian Air Force as part ofOperation Sindoor on the night between on 7 May 2025.[29][30][31] The Government of Pakistan has said that the complex is a civilian facility run by the Government.
The Diplomat's investigations reveal not just the PMML's political connection with the LeT, but also the party's spearheading of the madrassa network, including the Markaz-e-Taiba in Muridke, one of the sites hit by Indian strikes. In a video shared with The Diplomat by a student of the Markaz-e-Taiba, recorded days before the Pahalgam attack, a local PMML leader Naseer Ahmad can be heard telling a gathering in Muridke that "the ideological offspring of Hafiz Mohammed Saeed will continue his jihad." ... In March, LeT cofounder Amir Hamza, a close aide of Hafiz Saeed, delivered a Friday sermon at the Markaz-e-Taiba urging "jihad against the kuffaar (infidels) including Israel and India." The Markaz-e-Taiba frequently hosts Hafiz Saeed's son Talha Saeed, along with PMML founders Saifullah Kasuri and Tabish Qayyum, both of whom were also cofounders of the Milli Muslim League. ... The funeral prayers for those who died in the Indian strike on the Markaz-e-Taiba were led by the LeT-affiliated, U.S.-designated terrorist Hafiz Abdul Rauf, who ran the group's Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation.
Daarnaast heeft LeT kaders ingedeeld in verschillende districten, waar trainingskampen zijn en kantoren vanwaar de financiering en rekrutering van nieuwe leden wordt geleid. Het hoofdkantoor bevindt zich in Muridke, bij Lahore.[LeT also has cadres organized into various districts, where training camps and offices are located, managing the financing and recruitment of new members. Its headquarters are located in Muridke, near Lahore.]
Significantly, these included the headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the Pahalgam attack, in Muridke, 50 kilometres from Lahore; and the headquarters of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group in Bhawalpur, over 100 km from the Indian border.
Markaz-e-Taiba, LeT's headquarters in Muridke near Lahore, is a sprawling complex used to indoctrinate future jihadists before they are sent off for military training. The provincial government of Punjab has financed Markaz-e-Taiba in the past.
MDI also acquired land for a larger centre at Muridke, 37 kilometres north of Lahore. Covering 200 acres, the centre was named Markaz-e-Taiba, once again invoking a direct link with the first Islamic state of Medina.
Funded by the State and from the Middle East, the Markaz had a huge complex in Muridke, near Lahore, which is still in use by the JuD as its organizational base and head office.
MDI's headquarters (Markaz) was built in 1989 on a 200-acre campus in Muridke in Pakistan's Punjab province, some 30 kilometers from Lahore. Punjab, unlike the FATA, is one of the most militarized provinces in Pakistan. Of the nine regular Pakistan Army corps, six are in Punjab alongside the Army Air Defense Command and Strategic Forces Command, which are treated as corps. The MDI Markaz, which is now the headquarters for JuD, hosts numerous amenities and businesses, including a madrasa (seminary), large jamia mosque, hospital, market, large residential area for scholars and faculty members, garment factory, iron factory, woodworking factory, stable, swimming pool, fish farm, and agricultural tracts.
LeT first emerged in 1993 as the military wing of the Punjab-based Markaz Daawat ul Irshad (MDI). Headquartered in Muridke, some 30 kilometers from Lahore, the provincial capital, MDI was founded in 1986 by two Pakistani engineering professors, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Zafar Iqbal. The ISI was a crucial partner of LeT from the start; Abdullah Azzam, a close of associate of Osama bin Laden, also provided assistance to the fledgling organization. ... The bans were farcical: Pakistani intelligence gave advance notice of the impending ban to LeT's Hafiz Saeed and the leaders of other militant groups, allowing them to transfer their financial assets to new accounts and quickly re-emerge under new names. Saeed announced that his organization would be restructured and renamed Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the vast majority of the assets and personnel into JuD, and organizational nodes and operatives continued to function under the name of LeT. As organizational continuity between the various organizations, Hafez Saeed remains the amir, or leader, of JuD. ... LeT, now exclusively known as JuD, continues to be headquartered at its sprawling 200-acre facility in Muridke, although it maintains offices in most of the major cities of Pakistan.
LeT's headquarters (200 acres), are located in Muridke, 30 kms from Lahore. The building was constructed with contributions and donations from the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia being the biggest benefactor. The headquarters house a Madrassa (seminary), a hospital, a market, a large residential area for 'scholars' and faculty members, a fish farm and agricultural tracts.
Its main headquarters in Muridke, near Lahore, has a campus of several hundred acres with schools and dormitories for thousands of students, a garment factory, an iron foundry, and a huge mosque.
But it was the first time since the 1971 war that either country's military had hit locations outside the disputed Kashmir region, with missiles striking Muridke and Bahawalpur, in central and southern Punjab respectively, both areas known for harbouring Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani Islamist group which the UN designates as a terrorist organisation and New Delhi blames for coordinating the 22 April attack with Islamabad's support.
