Muridke

Muridke (Punjabi / Urdu: مریدکے), is a city and headquarters of Muridke Tehsil of Sheikhupura District in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 37th largest city of Pakistan by population. Muridke is a commercial area situated near the city of Lahore, at an elevation of 205 m (675 ft).^[2]

Muridke مریدکے
City
Chand Bagh School ground at night
Muridke Show map of Punjab, Pakistan Muridke Show map of Pakistan
Coordinates: 31.802°N 74.255°E / 31.802; 74.255
Country	Pakistan
Province	Punjab
District	Sheikhupura
Elevation	205 m (673 ft)
Population  (2023 census)[1]
• City	254,291
• Rank	37rd, Pakistan
Time zone	UTC+5 (PST)

Geography

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]

Temperature

The average temperature is 23 °C. The hottest month is May, at 33 °C , and the coldest is January, at 11 °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]

Murīdke Climate chart (explanation) J F M A M J J A S O N D     34     17 5     49     20 9     44     25 12     57     34 17     15     43 23     63     40 24     137     32 26     226     30 24     289     29 23     16     29 18     11     26 11     14     20 6 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °C █ Precipitation totals in mm Source: [5] Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     1.3     63 41     1.9     68 48     1.7     77 54     2.2     93 63     0.6     109 73     2.5     104 75     5.4     90 79     8.9     86 75     11     84 73     0.6     84 64     0.4     79 52     0.6     68 43 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F █ Precipitation totals in inches

Transportation

The city is home to the Muridke railway station, on the Karachi–Peshawar Line.

Demographics

Population

Historical population

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 to 2023 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]

Education

Chand Bagh School in Muridke, Pakistan

Chand Bagh School is a private boarding school for boys in Muridke. It is situated on the Muridke-Sheikhupura Road. It follows the Cambridge International Examination system.^[10]

Landmarks

Muridke railway station

Markaz-e-Taiba

Muridke is known for being home to the Markaz-e-Taiba, the headquarters of Markaz Dawa wal Irshad (MDI) or Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD),^[a] the parent organisation of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), located in the suburb of Nangal Sahdan.^{[14][15][16][17][18][19]} The Markaz is a large 200-acre complex that has a range of infrastructure established by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed in 1990.^[20][19][21] Osama bin Laden, the former leader of Al-Qaeda, is believed to have contributed approximately PKR 10 million (roughly USD 100,000 at the time) towards the development of the complex.^[22] The complex includes the Umm al-Qura Mosque, a madrasa, 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.^{[23][20][24][25][26]} 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.^[19] In 2009, following the Mumbai attacks, the Punjab government took over the complex, and JuD continued to operate from there.^[27] The federal and provincial governments in Pakistan continued to allocate funds to the organisation.^[20]

The complex was targeted in an airstrike conducted by the Indian Air Force as part of Operation Sindoor on the night between on 7 May 2025.^[28][29][30] The Government of Pakistan has said that the complex is a civilian facility run by the Government. The Diplomat magazine said that Amir Hamza, a co-founder of LeT, gave a Friday sermon at the Markaz in March, and a leader of Pakistan Markazi Muslim League, an affiliate of JuD/LeT, was seen telling a gathering just a few weeks earlier that the "jihad" would continue.^[14] Several high-profile attackers, including Ajmal Kasab and David Headley underwent training at these facilities.^[31]

Notable people

• Iqbal Masih, former child slave and later activist^[32]
• Jaffar Nazir, first-class cricketer^[33]
• Bilawal Bhatti, international cricketer
• Imran Nazir, international cricketer

Notes

1. The organisation took the name Jamaat-ud-Dawa in 2002 after facing a ban in Pakistan.^[11][12] Considerable confusion persists regarding the relationship between the various organisations. According to journalist and author Arif Jamal, Jamaat-ud-Dawa is the central organisation and Lashkar-e-Taiba is just its India-facing branch.^[13]