Ancient period Attock is located in the historical region of
Gandhara.
Alexander the Great,
Mahmud of Ghazni,
Timur,
Nader Shah and
Babur crossed the Indus at or about this spot (
Attock Fort) in their invasions of
India. After the founding of the city by the Mughal emperor Akbar, During the Mughal era, Attock was part of the
Lahore Subah of Punjab. , depicted in map of Mughal India by
Robert Wilkinson (1805) Nader Shah crossed through Attock when he defeated the Mughals at the
Battle of Karnal and thus ended Mughal power in Northern India. Attock was then occupied by the
Marathas in 1758 but this conquest was short-lived as
Ahmad Shah Durrani came in person to recapture Attock and checked the Maratha advance after destroying their forces at
Panipat. The
Sikh Kingdom (1799–1849) under
Ranjit Singh (1780–1839) captured the fortress of Attock in 1813 from the Durrani Nawab. while the Attock Oil Company was established with a selling arrangement with the
Burmah Oil Company. During 1928, the region produced 350,000 barrels of oil. Attock was one of the northernmost points of the
Punjab Province of
British India prior to the
partition; it thus found itself being a part of the common
Hindi-Urdu phrase used to describe the length of
colonial India: "Attock se Cuttack" (from Attock to
Cuttack). The term "Attock se Cuttack" was first used to describe the extent of the Maratha Empire after they conquered Cuttack in 1750 and Attock in 1758. After the
independence of
Pakistan in 1947,
Hindu and
Sikh minorities emigrated to India, while
Muslim refugees from India settled in Attock. The
Government of Pakistan renamed Campbellpur as Attock in 1978. == Education ==