Page 78 - Lohgarh

78 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

soldiers. He, with the help of his two nephews (Wali Khan and
Mohammed Bakhsh), went forward to pick up the body of his brother.
The Sikhs attacked them too. In this attempt, Wali Khan and Mohammed
Bakhsh also killed; even Sher Mohammed Khan was wounded. After
this no soldier of the Malerkotla Army could hold ground, even for a
moment. Of course, the Sikhs raised the sky with the slogans of victory
and began their march towards Banur. On their way, the Sikhs had to
face another attack at Ranvan village (near the ancient town of Sanghol,
now a small village). The Sikhs emerged victorious in this battle too.
When these Sikhs reached near Banur, Banda Singh himself came out
to welcome them. The Sikhs met each other with embraces and
jaikaaraas (slogans of victory). 2

Battle of Chappar Chiri and Occupation of Sarhind
When Wazir Khan received the news of the death of Khijar Khan and
his two sons and the defeat of the Malerkotla Army at the hands of the
Sikhs, he became very despondent; but, in spite of this, he was not
disheartened. He had already sent emissaries to Delhi and Lahore asking
them to send more soldiers and arms. Thus, he had assembled a very
powerful army and a big arsenal of weapons. Besides, he had a very
large number of not only horses but also elephants. Having assessed all
the arrangements he decided to attack the Sikhs before they could move
towards Sarhind as he did not want to fight inside or near his city. So,
he led his army towards the place where the Sikhs had encamped and
were planning to attack Sarhind.
Besides this, Wazir Khan played another trick. He sent Ganda Mall,
a nephew of Sucha Nand (minister of Wazir Khan), to Banda Singh to
pose himself as a rebel against Wazir Khan. It was planned by them
that when the battle began, he (Ganda Mall) would flee the field, which
would demoralize the Sikh soldiers and they will lose the battle and
possibly Banda Singh too might be captured. With this foxy notion,
Ganda Mall went to Banda Singh. Banda Singh listened to Ganda Mall
but he would not trust him. In spite of this, he did not reject him and
asked the Sikh generals not to place him in the front line.