Page 160 - Lohgarh

160 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

the Rajput zone and delivered the royal letters and presents. When he
(Hatim Khan) was on his return journey to Lahore to report it back to
the Emperor, the Sikhs seized him near Jhajjar town and killed him;
Bahadur Shah received the report of his death on the first of
February1712. 8
In January 1712, Banda Singh was present in Bilaspur State. A band
of Sikh soldiers attacked the army of Hoshiar Khan at Jindbari (which
was one of the major parganas at that time), about 14 km from
Anandpur Sahib. Several Mughal soldiers lost their lives in the Sikhs’
action.
rd
On the 23 of January 1712, Bahadur Shah despatched Firoz Khan,
9
the Faujdar of Jammu province, against the Sikhs. Already, Mohammed
Amin Khan and Hoshiar Khan were chasing the Sikhs with a big force.
Mohammed Amin Khan, with a force of twenty thousand soldiers, had
established his camps at village Bhilowal and Hoshiar Khan’s camps were
at Jaijon (then a major town); besides, there were Mughal camps at
Jhajjar and Jindbari too. All these generals, with forces at four camps,
were keeping an eye on Banda Singh’s activates, who was, then, staying
at Bilaspur, but, the Mughal forces did not move towards Bilaspur; they
were waiting for Banda Singh’s descent into the plains. Thus, it was a
period without any success for the Mughals; in spite of this, Bahadur
Shah bestowed an award of Ghazi-ud-Din Khan Bahadur for Mohammed
Amin Khan.
Not only Mohammed Amin Khan but other ten senior and dozens
of junior generals of the Mughal army were engaged in operations
against the Sikhs. They had fought several battles against the Sikhs, in
which both sides had suffered heavy losses.
Bahadur Shah had spent hundreds of thousands of rupees and used
a large quantity of ammunition and arms to quell the Sikh rebellion but
had not been able to achieve any major success. Eliminating Banda Singh
and crushing the Sikhs, was a matter of life and death for him. Whereas,
earlier, he had succeeded in defeating and killing all his brothers; he
had suppressed rebellion in Deccan; he had compelled the Hindu Rajput
rulers to submit to his authority; and all these enemies of the king had