Page 83 - Lohgarh

Banda Singh Bahadur’s Actions from the Lohgarh Fort w 83

Sikhs would not trouble any innocent person; only the tyrant officials
would be punished.
Now the Sikhs turned their attention to the Fort; but the cannons
from inside began firing on the Sikhs. About 500 Sikhs were killed. The
Sikhs then realized that they would be able not to enter the Fort for
many days. They pitched one cannon at the top of a brick-kiln and fired
cannon balls towards the direction of the cannons of the Fort, killing
the cannon operators of the Sarhind army. Thereafter, the Sikhs began
firing cannon balls at the gates of the Fort. After a lot of shelling one of
the gates crashed and the Sikhs entered the Fort. Here, again, some
loyal imperial soldiers resisted but were killed soon and the rest of them
surrendered; they were arrested.
Now, the Sikhs had full control of Sarhind. Wazir Khan was dead;
his son had fled to Delhi and all other officials had been either killed or
arrested; the only person yet missing was Sucha Nand, who had fled
from the battlefield at Chappar Chiri, the previous day. It was believed
that he had hidden himself in some building in the city.
In the evening, Banda Singh called a meeting of the prominent local
residents and assured them that no innocent person needed to be afraid,
and, no one would be allowed to do injustice to anyone, but no criminal
would be forgiven. This announcement gave the common man a sigh
of relief. Most of them began co-operating with the Sikhs; one of them
also gave the Sikhs information about the hideout of Sucha Nand. After
fleeing from Chappar Chiri he had gone to Sarhind but had not fled
further as he wanted to manage his wealth. Soon, he was arrested and
paraded through the streets of Sarhind like an animal, with a string
through his nostrils, and, around his neck with a rope. He was asked to
beg alms from the folk. While he was being paraded through the streets
of Sarhind the common Hindu and Muslim folk, who had been victims
of his cruelty and injustice, threw stones at him. Due to stoning and
torture he died in the evening.
Sucha Nand had hoarded immense wealth; all this was confiscated
and deposited in the Sikh treasury. Mohammed Qasim writes: ‘It seems
that he had collected all this wealth for this day...People said that there