Abbottabad

Abbottabad (/ˈæbətəbɑːd/; Urdu, Hindko: ایبٹ آباد, romanized: aibṭabād, pronounced [ɛːbʈəˈbaːd̪]) is the capital city of Abbottabad District in the Hazara region of eastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the 40th largest city in Pakistan and fourth largest in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population. It is about 120 km (75 mi) north of Islamabad-Rawalpindi and 150 km (95 mi) east of Peshawar, at an elevation of 1,256 m (4,121 ft). Kashmir lies a short distance to the east.

Following the Second Anglo-Sikh War, The British annexed the entire Punjab region up to Peshawar. Abbottabad was founded in the early 1850s, by a British military officer in the Bengal Army of the British Raj, James Abbott, and replaced Haripur as Hazara's capital.

On the 9th of November 1901, the British established a North-West Frontier Province from the north-western districts of The Punjab. This meant that Abbottabad was now a part of the newly-formed province.

Following the Announcement of Partition of the British Raj into the Dominion of Pakistan and the Dominion of India, a referendum was held in the NWFP and the result was in favor of Pakistan. In 1955, Abbottabad and the whole NWFP became a part of West Pakistan, but the province was established again in 1970, and Hazara District and the two tribal agencies were merged to form the new Hazara Division with its capital at Abbottabad.

Osama bin Laden, founder of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, held refuge at a compound in Abbottabad, where he was shot and killed by U.S. forces on 2 May 2011.

Established in 1947, Abbottabad houses the Pakistan Army's initial officer training academy, the Pakistan Military Academy, referred to by its acronym, PMA.