Page 129 - Lohgarh

Mughal Action Against the Sikhs w 129

of the Mughals or the Akhbarat-I-Darbar-Mualla (letters of the Jaipur
rulers’ agents in the Mughal court; and, this information were based
on what they learnt from the Mughal court). It seems that all this was
written or narrated to please the Emperor or to boast of the might of
the Mughal army or to prove that the Sikh army was weak and
powerless.
We have seen that the Lohgarh Fort is 40 to 50 kilometers in length
and 10 to 15 kilometers in width. The periphery of this Fort is 50 km
which surrounded by 52 Fortresses and dozens of hills. Could this Fort
be captured in just one or two days? This is impossible. In one day,
even one Fortress cannot be captured. There are dozens of hills, some
of them very hazardous to enemy having towers, bastions, trenches
and walls on each hill.
According to Muhammed Qasim Aurangabadi, “Khan Khanan and
the Mughal prince were of the opinion that the occupation of the Fort
will not be possible in less than one year. 60

Propaganda about Occupation of Lohgarh Fort ?
To claim that the Mughal army attacked and captured the Fort in just a
few hours or a couple of days is just a joke. The truth is that the Mughals
captured only one or two hills of the Fort of Lohgarh. To please the
Emperor, they spread the news that they had captured the Lohgarh
Fort. Kamwar Khan, Khafi Khan and Muhammed Qasim Khan, who
claimed to be eyewitnesses to the battle, had said all this to propagate
that the soldiers of the Mughal army were ‘great fighters’, the Mughal
generals were ‘great planners’ and the Sikhs were ‘no force against these
mighty Mughals’. In fact, this Fort was so vast (in length and width), and
surrounded with so many hazardous hills, that it could not have been
fully captured even in 6-7 years.
What to talk of capturing the Lohgarh Fort, even the path between
Sadhaura and Lohgarh could not have been covered by the Mughal
army in this short time. There were 52 Fortresses between Sadhaura
and Lohgarh, and, these were very strong posts; there were soldiers
and cannons and other ammunition in each bastion and trench; hence