Page 198 - Lohgarh

198 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

that had he chosen to fight near Batala and Kalanaur, then, in case of
losing the battle against the Mughal army, the residents of these two
towns would have blocked his way from escaping; and if the Mughals
were defeated, the fleeing Mughal army would have found refuge in
these towns; so, he was looking for a safer defensive post like that of
the Fortress of Kot Mirza Jaan. Karam Singh believes that Banda Singh
expected more possibility of defeat than victory. That is why he began
repairing this Fortress. Banda Singh had repaired a major part of the
inside of the Fortress but the outer walls and the moat were still not
ready.
It seems that Karam Singh historian had not rightly assessed the
situation. Mirza Jaan village (in between Bijliwal and Akarpura) is eight
and a half kilometres from Batala, and, the distance from Kalanaur to
Mirza Jan is fifteen kilometres. All the villages around Mirza Jaan i.e.
Akarpura, Muridke, Kala Afghana and Fatehgarh Churian on one side,
and, Satkoha and Dhariwal on the other side were totally Muslim
villages. They were not supposed to help Banda Singh. But, the reality
is that all the Muslims of the Punjab were afraid of Banda Singh, hence,
there was least possibility that any civilian would try to block the passage
of Banda Singh.
Now, when he received the news of the march of a huge Mughal
army, under the command of Arif Khan, he decided to leave that area
for a safer place from where he could fight against the invading army.
Banda Singh marched towards Gurdas Nangal and took refuge in the
Fortress-type mansion of Duni Chand Darwesh (later known as Gurdas
Nangal Di Garhi), at Gurdas Nangal village, about six km from present
town of Gurdaspur. Soon, the Mughal army too reached there and
surrounded the Fortress from all the sides.
At that time Banda Singh had not more than five thousand soldiers
with him. This mansion was not big enough to give place to more than
a thousand persons; the rest had no choice but to try to flee by cutting
the Mughal siege. So, about four thousand Sikhs began running for
safety; but, due to the siege by the thousands of Mughal soldiers, most
of them were slain, and only a small number of them were able to save