So it was "necessary" for Abdali to invade a "rich but poorly defended neighbouring country" India to plunder and exploit her resources.

[1] In the winter of 1751, he invaded India for the third time on the pretext that Mir Mannu, the Mughal governor of the province of Punjab, had refused to pay him tax which he had promised to give on a monthly basis.

He also signed a peace treaty under which the two territories of Punjab – Multan and Lahore - were to be ceded to Abdali's Afghan empire.

Bahadur, with advice from the royal advisor Javed Khan, put his seal on the treaty on 3 April, which cut Punjab from the Mughal empire.

He returned at the end of the month with fresh recruits to confront Abdali, but learned of the treaty and retreated.