Lohgarh - Khalsa Rajdhani, Lohgarh fort - Lohgarh Trust, S. Daljeet Singh Bajwa [early reader books .txt] 📗

In the first week of December, not a single Sikh tried to come out of the Fortress; nor was any face or weapon appearing from the tops of the walls; at this, the Mughals began thinking that either the remaining Sikhs had fled from the Fortress or all of them had died; they, however, did not yet dare move towards the gates of the Fortress. Finally, on the morning of the 7th of December 1715, the Mughal general sent a few dare devil soldiers towards the gate of the Fortress. They reached near the gate without any opposition. This confirmed their apprehensions that the Sikhs had either disappeared or died. Now, the herds of the Mughal army ran towards the gate of the Fortress, broke the gate open and entered the Fortress.

There were none to resist them; inside, they found about three to four hundred Sikhs who were very weak from hunger and almost dead; the Mughal soldiers immediately tied them, and, if any one of them showed even a little movement, he was immediately cut with sword; about half of the Sikhs were put to the sword. There was a pool of blood around the dead bodies of the Sikh soldiers.

But, on the other hand, Mohammed Qasim (in Ibratnama) gives a different story: “Due to stinking smell and starvation, the Sikhs offered themselves for arrest on this condition that they won’t be killed.” The same has been claimed by Mirza Mohammed; he writes: “the Sikhs offered a big sum of money (as bribe) to Mohammed Amin Khan if he would allow them passage to flee; but when the Khan did not agree, they offered themselves for arrest, on the condition that they won’t be killed but shall be presented before the Emperor and they would accept whatever punishment the Emperor grants them.”19

Both these stories are concoctions. Any Sikh showing his head out of the gate of the Fortress or above the walls was sure to get an arrow or a bullet attack; hence no question of their surrender. Secondly, the Sikhs had no money which they could have offered to Abdus Samad Khan (the Sikhs had only 600 rupees and 23 muhars.20 Thirdly, had the Sikhs offered to surrender, they would have either come out with their hand up or with a white flag or any other form of surrender. Fourthly,

had the Mughals accepted the Sikhs’ offer, they would not have killed more than half of the Sikhs, even after their surrender? Fifthly, how could the Sikhs have offered to agree to the decision of the Emperor about their fate after their arrest, especially from that Emperor who wanted to annihilate them? Hence, this is just a propaganda of the Mughal. The truth is that the Sikhs in the Fortress had become so week due to hunger that they were unable to make any movement, and, when there was no movement for several days, the Mughal army attacked and captured the feeble and half-dead Sikhs there.

Muhammed Qasim Aurangabadi has given the true account of the arrest of Banda Singh and the Sikhs. He says that when there was no movement within the Fortress for so many days, the Mughal soldiers climbed the ladders, scaled the walls, and entered the Fortress. Inside the Fortress, due to hunger and other difficulties, the limbs of the Sikhs had become powerless to act or even to make any movement; hence they had lost strength to fight because they did to have power to even hold swords. So much so that they could not even speak any word. Thus, to say that Banda Singh and the Sikhs surrendered is baseless.

Banda Singh was Immediately Fettered

As soon as the Mughals identified Banda Singh (who himself was almost unconscious), they immediately fettered him; others too were tied with ropes. All the Sikh prisoners were taken to Lahore under heavy army escort. At Lahore, they were paraded through the streets of the city; the local Muslim residents threw bricks, stones and other articles on them; this hurt several Sikh prisoners. When the prisoners’ procession was passing by the residence of Bayzid Khan (former chief of Jammu), his mother threw a big stone at them, killing one of them.21 So, after this, the Governor of Lahore ordered covering of the faces of the prisoners with sacks.

After the procession, these Sikh prisoners were kept in shackles, under strict surveillance of the Mughal army. Their feet too had been fettered, and, their wastes had been tied with ropes; they were further tied in batches of 2s and 3s, and then they were again tied down on the

carts. Finally, it was decided to despatch them to Delhi via Sarhind under heavy army guards. The news of these arrests had reached the Emperor on the 12th of December 1715.

The number of the Sikhs arrested from Gurdas Nangal was less than 300; several Sikhs arrested from other places were also added to this group. Similarly, the Mughal army had killed only a couple of hundred of Sikhs during capture of Gurdas Nangal, and, their heads had been severed. During this period hundreds of more Sikhs had been killed elsewhere; the severed heads of all these Sikhs were also added to the total of the heads being despatched to Delhi. By the time the arrested Sikhs and severed heads of the Sikhs killed reached Delhi, their number had risen from 300 arrested from Gurdas Nangal to more than 700; and the number of the severed heads, which was about 200 at Gurdas Nangal, 700 at Lahore, now had risen to more than 2000 when it reached Delhi; all this was done to show the Emperor and the people of Delhi that Abdus Samad Khan had made great achievements.22

From Gurdas Nangal, the Mughal forces had captured 1000 swords, 278 shields, 173 bows and a small number of arrows, 180 guns, 114 daggers, 217 swords with gaatra (the Sikh sword-belt), a few ornaments of gold, 23 mohars and about 600 rupees only, and, all this was, later, deposited in the royal treasury at Delhi. It is amazing that the Sikhs had fought against a heavily armoured mammoth Mughal army, with just such a small number of weapons, for about eight months.

Farukhsiyar Celebrated the Arrest of Banda Singh

When Farukhsiyar received the news of the arrest of Banda Singh and his companions on the 12th of December 1715, he made prayers (namaaz) twice. He announced the news of the Banda Singh’s arrest in Delhi at the beat of the drum; he sent four sacks filled with coins (money) to be showered from elephants, so that the public should pick up the money and celebrate the victory of the Mughal army over the Sikhs.23 Zakaria Khan (son of Abdus Samad Khan, the Governor of Lahore, and son-in-law of Mohammed Amin Khan) himself led the procession bringing Banda Singh, his wife Sushil Kaur and 4’1/2 years old son Ajay

Singh, along with more than 700 other Sikh prisoners and two thousand severed heads of the Sikhs; severed heads of the Sikhs had been heaped in carts; the prisoner Sikhs had been tied in 2s and 3s and were ‘laden’ on camels. Banda Singh, who was in fetters, had been put in a big cage; this cage had been placed on an elephant and a Mughal soldier, carrying an unsheathed sword, was standing behind this cage, due to fear that Banda Singh might not break the cage with his ‘magical power’ and fly away.24

The procession of the Sikh prisoners first reached the village of Agarabad, in the outskirts of Delhi, on the 27th of February 1716. On the 29th of February, before imprisoning them in the Salimgarh Fort (a Fort built by Salim Shah Sur in 1540s, on the back side of the Lal Qila, built by Shah Jahan in the 1620s; Salimgarh Fort was used for keeping the prisoners); these prisoners were paraded through the streets of Delhi.25

The Scene of Procession of the Sikh Prisoners

This procession of the Sikh prisoners began from Agarabad and after covering about ten km route it reached the Lal Qila. It was led by a musical band, followed by the carts laden with severed heads of some two thousand Sikhs. These heads had been filled with chaff and were hung on the tops of bamboo sticks. The hair of these heads had been left flowing so that people might know that they were the heads of the Sikhs; these included some heads of the Sikh females as well and due to their long hair they too looked like male Sikhs.

Next to these severed heads, one soldier was carrying a dead cat at the top of a long bamboo stick. It signified that in the houses of the Sikhs not only human folk, but even no animal was left alive.

It was followed by Banda Singh; who had been put in a big cage that had been placed on an elephant; to ridicule Banda Singh, he had been dressed as a bridegroom; he was made to wear a royal cloak embroidered with pomegranate flowers and a red colored golden brocade turban. A heavy wooden case, carrying 3-4 kg soil had been placed on his head, and, due to this heavy weight he was sitting in a

reclining posture leaning towards one side. Though he had been chained and was put in a cage, still, a soldier carrying an unsheathed sword was standing by in an ever-ready position to attack Banda Singh, in case the latter tried to flee by using his ‘magical’ power.

The last in the procession were 740 Sikh prisoners whose faces had been blackened; their hands had been tightly tied and clamped by their necks. To insult and make fun of them, cartoon-styled paper caps had been put on their heads and sheep skin had been wrapped about their bodies.

The procession was being escorted by Mohammed Amin Khan, his son Qamar-ud-Din and son-in-law Zakaria Khan, who was riding on horses with haughty pride, like winners of some great trophy.

This procession entered the walled city of Delhi through Lahori Gate.26 Almost the whole of Delhi had come to see this. There was perhaps no male resident of Delhi who had not seen this procession; hence, due to this crowd of hundreds of thousands, there was suffocation and it was difficult to breathe properly. People were passing remarks making insulting signs and showering abuse on the Sikhs; some of them were created shrieking/hooting sounds, clapping and even dancing as if they themselves had achieved the most precious victory in the history.

But, on the other hand, there was no sign of remorse or despondency on the faces of the Sikhs; they did not look like defeated and fallen soldiers. They were chanting hymns and repeating ‘Waheguru’ (the name of God); they were behaving in a manner as if nothing had happened to them.27

When Banda Singh was presented before Farukhsiyar, the latter asked him ‘What type of death would you choose for yourself?’’28Banda Singh replied ‘The same type as the Emperor would opt for himself.’29 Muhammed Qasim Aurangabadi says that when Farukhsiyar looked

at the faces of the Sikhs he got frightened. He said that their faces were filled with scary and thunderous look. Had they survived some more time, it would have become a very difficult task to uproot them.30

On the 7th of March, Mumtaz Khan Akhtar Beghi presented 16 horses

to Farukhsiyar. These had been sent by Abdus Samad Khan; out of these 16 horses and mares, 3 horses and 6 mares had belonged to Banda Singh himself.

Execution of the Sikh Prisoners

On 5 March 1716, the Emperor ordered Sarbrah Khan, the police chief of Delhi, to execute all the Sikh prisoners31 except the seventeen senior leaders of the Sikh army. For the next seven days, one hundred Sikhs were executed every day; they