Page 202 - Lohgarh

202 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

Those Mughal soldiers who succeeded in reaching near the Sikhs were
cut by their swords.” Mohammed Qasim further writes that the Mughal
soldiers used to make prayer saying: “O Allah! Let Banda Singh somehow
escape from here, so that we may be able to save our lives.” 12
Khafi Khan refers to the awe and fear among the Mughal soldiers,
writes: “When some cat or dog would come out of the Fortress, the
royal persons would kill it with an arrow or gun fearing that this might
be some act of magic.” (The Mughals feared that, as Banda Singh knew
magic, he might have disguised himself as a cat or dog).
When the news of the prolonged siege reached Delhi, the Emperor
wrote an angry letter to Abdus Samad Khan for not being able to capture
Banda Singh even after a siege of more than two months; he ordered
Qamar-ud-Din to immediately lead his forces to Gurdas Nangal. Within
a few days he (Qamar-ud-Din) reached there and established his camp
on the eastern side of the Fortress.
Now, the Sikhs were in a major crisis; due to such a big force
surrounding them, they became helpless and hopeless too; they were
not able to come out of the Fortress even to get food or water for
themselves and fodder for their horses; and, whenever they tried to
come out, they would come under the attack of the guns and arrows;
most of them would die and the rest had to run into the Fortress for
their safety. A couple of hundred Sikhs died during these attempts too.
Now, their number inside the Fortress was not more than five hundred.
In the first week of June 1715, Abdus Samad Khan announced that
whosoever brought the head of a Sikh would get ten rupees (it was two
month’s and a half salary of a soldier); this encouraged some Mughal
soldiers to try their luck; they began taking risks and a few of them
succeeded too while others lost their lives.
13
On 3 July, the Emperor was told that most of the Vanjaras, who
were Nanak-worshipper (i.e. Sikhs), were staying in the territory of Raja
15
14
Daya Dhamma and Raja Heer Chand (i.e. Kangra and Nurpur areas.
They acted as spies of Banda Singh. They provided the rebels with food-
grain, arrows and rifles. The Emperor was requested to issue orders to
the hill rulers asking them not to allow Vanjaras in their territories. If