Page 106 - Lohgarh

106 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

horsemen, and more than ten thousand infantry (soldiers on foot). At
Buria, he came to know that the Sikh soldiers had returned to
Saharanpur after their defeat at the hands of Jalal Khan. Here, he (Banda
Singh) met Amar Singh, the new Sikh police chief. Banda Singh twice
stroked his (Amar Singh’s) face with his spear and said: ‘Why did you
flee from the battle against the Afghans?’ Amar Singh told him that the
Hindu Chowdhry Lal Kanwar Gujjar had deceived them. At this Banda
Singh said: “We have begun this crusade for righteousness. What to talk
of Gujjars, all the Hindus shall approach us for the job.” After this Banda
Singh addressed Jan Mohammed, the Zamindar of Buria and said, “We
have forgiven you for all your sins and have appointed you the chief of
the pagan. Now, you should take Sardar Khan, the chief of Chandla with
you and march to defeat Jalal Khan.” The Emperor was also told that
Qazi Shah Mohammed, the chief of Buria, had been arrested. His
property had been confiscated and he had been interned in Lohgarh
Fort. In his place, now, Gurbakhsh Singh was the chief of the army and
administration at Buria and Kishor Singh was his deputy. Banda Singh
had re-named Buria as Gulab Nagar and Saharanpur as Bhaagnagar.
Such news made Bahadur Shah further despondent and melancholy. 15
On 1 July 1710, the caravan of the Emperor reached Roop Nagar
(about 45 km from Ajmer). Here, he received a letter from Muaraf Khan
narrating that the Sikhs had captured Rampur, Nanauta, Jhunjhana,
Bakaur, Barsadu, Sadhaura, Karana, Budhana, Kandhala, Buria etc, and,
had established their own police posts in all these places. The Kanungo
(land revenue officer) of Saharanpur and rebel Gujjars had also declared
their loyalties to him. The Emperor also got the news that Jalal Khan
had defeated the Sikhs and had captured two of their cannons, five
guns, several rifles, a thousand arrows, four tents and several other
belongings including fourteen thousand rupees. This made him
(Emperor) a bit comfortable. He sent a robe of honour, a royal letter of
appreciation and a horse for Jalal Khan. Just a minor victory made the
Emperor so much overjoyed that he decided to offer governorship of
Sarhind and Saharanpur to Jalal Khan. 16
On 2 July, someone reads out to Bahadur Shah, the declaration