History Of Sukkur

Sukkur has been an important strategic centre and trading route from time immemorial.
Alor (present Aror, Sukkur) held the status of capital under the reign of Musikanos, when
Alexander invaded India in 326 BCE. The ruins of this ancient town still exist, 8 km east
of Rohri, in Sukkur district. In 711 CE, the Arabs invaded Sindh, led by 17 years old
Muhammad bin Qasim, and Sukkur (including all of Sindh and lower Punjab) became
part of the Umayyad Caliphate. Later Mughals and many semi-autonomous tribes ruled
over Sukkur. The city was ceded to Mirs of Khairpur between 1809 and 1824. In 1833,
Shah Shuja (a warlord of Kandahar, Afghanistan) defeated the Talpurs near Sukkur and
later made a solemn treaty with the Talpur ruler, by which he relinquished all claims on
Sindh. In 1843, the British (General Charles James Napier) defeated the Talpurst at the
battles of Miani and Dubbo near Hyderabad , Sukkur along with the rest of Sindh was
under British rule until the independence of Pakistan in 1947. The (current) district of
Sukkur was constituted in 1901 out of part of Shikarpur District, the remainder of which
was formed into the Larkana District. Sukkur saw a significant socio-economic uplift
after the 1930s, when the British built the world largest barrage here on te Indus River.
After independence of Pakistan, thousands of Muslim immigrants arrived in Sukkur
while a much larger number of Hindus left for India.