British Mirpuris early 1960s, the Government of Pakistan planned the Mangla Dam, which was to be built in the Mirpur area. Several thousand people had to move. The British then needed workers, mainly for textile factories. Up to 5,000 people from Mirpur (5% of the displaced) left for Britain, and the displaced Mirpuris were given legal and financial assistance by the British contractor that built the dam. Many started working in factories, mostly in the so-called "Black Country" and in Bradford. In some villages of Mirpur, more than half of the people moved to the United Kingdom to settle in the industrial
Mangla Dam was constructed between 1961 and 1965 across the Jhelum River, about south-east of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad in Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir. The Mangla Dam components include a reservoir, main embankment, intake embankment, main spillway, emergency spillway, intake structures, 5 tunnels and a power station. Besides the main dam, a dyke called Sukian – 17,000 feet in length and a small dam called Jari Dam to block the Jari Nala – about 11 miles beyond the new Mirpur town had to be constructed. There was a total of 120 x 10 cubic yards (cu yds) of excavation for the