Mirpur is the southernmost city of Azad Kashmir, sitting on the eastern shore of the vast Mangla Lake some 110 kilometres south of Islamabad. It is unlike any other city in the region for one reason: an estimated three quarters of the British Pakistani community trace their roots here, and the money they have sent back has reshaped the place beyond recognition. Locals call it Little England, and on arrival you see why — wide boulevards, glass-fronted shopping plazas, and palatial empty villas built by families who live in Bradford, Birmingham, or Luton.
The modern city is barely sixty years old. When the Mangla Dam was completed in 1967, the old town of Mirpur and around 280 surrounding villages disappeared under the rising reservoir, displacing roughly 100,000 people. Many took compensation and emigrated to the British Midlands and northern England, where mills and foundries were short of labour. The new Mirpur was built from scratch on higher ground above the lake, which is why it feels so unlike a typical Pakistani city: planned grid streets, low-rise modern buildings, none of the layered old bazaar quarters you find in Lahore or Peshawar.
Mangla Lake itself is the main reason to make the trip. The reservoir's perimeter runs to roughly 100 kilometres, edged by bare brown hills that turn green in monsoon. On a promontory above the water sits Ramkot Fort, built on the ruins of a Hindu temple and refortified by the Mughal and Sikh rulers of Kashmir; the only sensible way to reach it is by boat from the Army Water Sports Club at Sukhian, about a 45-minute crossing. The Mangla Dam itself is viewable from designated overlooks and the reservoir is navigable by hired motorboat. Closer to town, the shrine complex at Khari Sharif holds the tombs of the Sufi poet Mian Muhammad Bakhsh — author of the romantic epic Saif-ul-Mulook — and the saint Pir-e-Shah Ghazi, and remains a serious pilgrimage site.
There is not much else for the conventional tourist, and Mirpur is honest about that. The food and shopping cater to returning expats with British tastes; you will find KFC-style chicken joints, English-style cake shops, and acres of bridal-wear boutiques. For travellers, it works best as a stop on the way deeper into Azad Kashmir, or as a day trip out from Islamabad to see the dam and the fort.