Page 69 - Lohgarh

Banda Singh Bahadur’s Journey from Nanded to Lohgarh w 69

its dead and the cannons behind to be taken over by the Sikhs. Besides
the cannons, the Sikhs captured a large number of other weapons and
horses too. After this, the Sikh army also captured Dahmala, another
rich town in that region.

Victory of Kapuri
During those days Kadam-ud-Din was the Chief of Kapuri. (He was the
son of Amanullah, who had been the Governor of Gujrat during the reign
of Aurangzeb). Kadam-ud-Din hated the non-Muslims and would never
miss an opportunity to torture or harm them. He was so cruel that he
had set up a gang of his soldiers whose sole purpose was to forcibly
carry away pretty and young Hindu girls for his sexual pleasure. He had
also appointed agents who would inform him about the whereabouts
of pretty Hindu females, and, these agents were always busy in getting
information about the marriages of the Hindu girls and on the wedding
day or around it. He would send his soldiers to forcibly carry off the
‘would be brides’ or, the recently married Hindu girls, for his sexual
gratification. He was so much obsessed with sex that he would send his
agents to bring young Hindu girls from other parganas (blocks/districts)
too. Kadam-ud-Din had inherited a lot of wealth from his father and he
himself had collected a lot of wealth and he would lavish most of this
for his sexual ventures.
One day, a group of Hindus from Kapuri presented themselves
before Banda Singh and narrated their woes. Banda Singh asked the
Sikh army to immediately march towards Kapuri. At first Kadam-ud-
Din’s men fought against the Sikhs but his rascals, rogues and hooligan
mercenaries were no match to the heroic and committed Sikhs and
they fled leaving Kadam-ud-Din alone. Though he fought for some time
but he too realized that he would’t be able to defeat the Sikhs, so he
shut himself in his mansion. The Sikhs tried to break open the gates of
the mansion, but could not succeed; hence, they set it on fire; Kadam-
ud-Din burned in this fire. 16