Domeli Police Station in Tehsil Sohawa, in Pakistan’s Jhelum district, sits along an old corridor linking the Salt Range with the Grand Trunk Road. The area’s long role in security and control shaped the kind of building the British constructed there in the late 19th century, and Domeli’s station remains a standout example of that era’s practical, fortified civic architecture.
Built in 1891, the station was designed as an administrative outpost that also handled custody, storage, and housing inside a single secure compound. Thick masonry walls and a prominent arched entrance controlled access and helped the building resist attack. Inside, a central open courtyard, or aangan, is ringed by broad shaded verandas that supported assembly, roll calls, and prisoner management, while also improving ventilation during intense heat.
The structure’s durability starts with its materials. The station was built with locally quarried sandstone from the Tarraki hills and the Salt Range, set as massive hand dressed stone blocks. Those blocks were bonded with traditional lime mortar mixed with surkhi, crushed brick dust, a combination credited with helping the walls withstand more than a century of weathering. Heavy shisham or teak beams, laid in the bala shatir system, support ceilings, and security details include wrought iron bars and iron reinforced wooden doors.
Dr. Ehsan Sadiq, a former inspector general of police who has researched colonial policing, called the building “an intersection between imperial administrative needs and native Potohari stone artistry,” noting that the skilled stone masons behind these stations drew from the same regional tradition that built forts and railway infrastructure across the Potohar region.
That legacy also faces modern risk. Sadiq warned that many historic stations see insensitive alterations, demolition, or slow structural decay as new facilities expand. In Domeli, former Jhelum district police officer Tariq Aziz Sindhu said the building’s stability and archaeological significance drove a recommendation to preserve it, a proposal accepted by Punjab’s police leadership with renovation limited to essential work that retains original architectural character.
Read the full, original article from Dawn here.