Page 119 - Lohgarh

Mughal Action Against the Sikhs w 119

become perplexed and disheartened.”
After such a long expedition against the Sikhs at Lohgarh, the
Emperor Bahadur Shah realized that capturing of the Fort of Lohgarh
was impossible and the only possibility of capturing the Fort was to
capture the leader of the Sikhs- Baba Banda Singh Bahadur. After this,
the Emperor spent most of his energy, resources and power only to
capture Baba Banda Singh Bahadur. According to the Mughal chronicles,
in May-June 1711, the Mughal army engaged the Sikhs in pitch battles
for a couple of times, but, in spite of inflicting heavy casualties on the
Sikhs, it failed to apprehend the Sikh leader (Banda Singh). There was a
huge difference between two leaders, i.e. Baba Banda Singh Bahadur
and Emperor Bahadur Shah; the Sikh leader was himself participating
in the battle and kept the morale of the Sikhs soldiers high, but the
Emperor had been watching the battle from a distance of more than 35
kilometers. Moreover Banda Singh’s knowledge of warfare and strategy
building was unmatched. The Sikh General (Banda) was in the late
thirties and Emperor was 65 years old. After some time Banda Singh
realized that the Emperor was a coward and does not want himself to
lead the expedition from the front and remained stationed at a safe
point near Shahbad. A very large number of soldiers remained with the
Emperor Bahadur Shah, to protect him. The Emperor encamped at Ugala
village of Shahbad Pargana. On seeing high casualities on his side the
Emperor Bahadur Shah frustrated too much, therefore he stopped the
entires of any Hindu and Hindu Rajas who were fighting on his side to
enter in his imperial camp. The level of insecurity increased to the
highest level and the Emperor stopped trusting his loyal soldiers.
The supplies of the Mughal army started getting affected, during
this long war, as the Imperials had deployed large army troops for
submerging the Sikhs. They needed a lot of food grains, medical facilities,
arms/ammunition and horses to deal with the Sikh army. The supplier/
traders of the Mughals army were mainly the Vanjaras, and the Vanjaras
were helping the opponents of the Mughals army i.e. the Sikh army.
They didn’t only supply food grains and other essential goods, but also
supplied arms and ammunitions, or whatsoever was the requirement