Dina

Near Dina, the great Rohtas Fort commands the approaches between the Pothohar hills and the Punjab plain. Its walls and gates enclose a village as well as the fortress itself. The stronghold takes its name from another Rohtas, in Bihar, captured by Sher Shah Suri in 1539.

Sher Shah ordered the fort built in 1541 to restrain the Gakhars, who resisted his rule, and to guard against the return of the exiled Mughal emperor Humayun. Work began under Todar Mal, but Sher Shah died before it was finished. Humayun recovered the fort in 1555. Later, Nader Shah and Ahmad Shah Durrani used it during their invasions of Punjab. In 1767 the Sikh chief Charat Singh captured it from its Durrani governor and entrusted it to a Gakhar chief.