Vadda Ghalughara

India Pakistan Afghanistan Vadda Ghalughara (Punjabi: ਵੱਡਾ ਘੱਲੂਘਾਰਾ Punjabi pronunciation: [ʋəɖɖäː kəl˨luːkäː˨ɾäː]; alternatively spelt as Wadda Ghalughara) was the mass murder of Sikhs by the Afghan forces of the Durrani Empire during the years of Afghan influence in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent owing to the repeated incursions of Ahmad Shah Durrani in February 1762.

[4][5][6][7][8] The Vadda Ghalūghārā was a dramatic and bloody massacre during the campaign of Afghanistan's (Durrani Empire) provincial government based at Lahore to wipe out the Sikhs, an offensive that had begun with the Mughals and lasted several decades.

[13] Mir Mannu (Mu'in ul-Mulk)[14] became governor of Lahore and the surrounding provinces in 1748 and, continued to hold that position for the next five years until 1753 through his exploits in battle against the Afghan army.

Mir Mannu then stationed detachments of troops in all parts of Punjab with any Sikh inhabitants with orders to capture them and shave their heads and beards.

[27] Because Durrani could not lay his hands on the elusive bands of Sikhs, he determined to attack their holy city Amritsar, the Harimandir Sahib was blown up, and the surrounding pool filled with the entrails of slaughtered cows.

[28] Hearing of this event Baba Deep Singh, an elderly scholar of the Sikhs living at Damdama Sahib, 160 kilometres (99 mi) south of Amritsar, was stirred to action.

As the leader of one of the Sikh divisions entrusted with the care of the temple, he felt responsible for the damage that had been done to it and announced his intention of rebuilding the Harmandir Sahib.

[27] Wielding his khanda (double-edged sword), the 75-year-old Sikh sustained many wounds but managed to kill the general Janam Khan beheading him in the process.

[31] On 14 January 1761, in the aftermath of the Third Battle of Panipat, the Afghans were returning to their native country with the spoils of war, including 2,200 imprisoned unwed Hindu Marathi girls and women.

[32] Whilst the Afghans were crossing the Sutlej River, suddenly Sikh forces fell upon them and rescued the captured Marathi women, saving them from their captors, and returning them to their parents and families.

[33] The annual Diwali convening of the Sarbat Khalsa at Amritsar on 27 October 1761 had passed a gurmatta that supporters of the Durranis must be eliminated, beginning with Aqil Das (based in Jandiala), to prepare to establish independence of the region from invading and occupying Afghan forces.

[34] The place was the home of Aqil Das, the head of the heretical Nirinjania (Hindali) sect, an ally of the Afghans, and an inveterate enemy of the Sikhs.

[8] Another reason for the Sikh retreat is they left to avenge the recent death of Dyal Singh Brar at the hands of Zain Khan of Sirhind.

[8] Abdali further gave orders to Zain Khan that his troops, who were local Indians, should hang green leaves from their turbans to distinguish themselves from the Sikhs to prevent friendly-fire.

[34][37] Durrani departed on 3 February from Lahore to reach the Malwa region, he set about on a rapid march, covering the distance of 240 kilometres (150 mi) and including two river crossings in less than 48 hours.

[8] In the twilight of 5 February 1762, Durrani and his allies surprised the Sikhs who numbered about 30,000 at Kup village alone,[37][4] with most of them noncombatants being women, children, and elderly men.

[35] At-first, a pitched battle ensued in the first phase of hostilities between the Sikh army and Abdali's army near the banks of the Sutlej, whilst the vāhir convoy, consisting of Sikh non-combatants, had distanced themselves 10–12 kilometres from the battlefield and were passing through the villages of Kup and Rahira (these two localities are distanced apart from each-other by around 4 km and were both Muslim-dominated demographically in this period of time).

[35] The main Dal Khalsa forced withdrew from the pitched battle near the Sutlej as they now knew their women, children, and elderly were vulnerable to further attacks so they reunited with the vāhir convoy in the region of Kup-Rahira.

[32] The reunited vahir convoy and their Dal Khalsa protectors held their ground more-or-less for an hour and a half from the harassing forces of their nemeses.

[34][37] The tactic devised was that the Sikh fighters would form a cordon around the slow-moving baggage train (vāhir) consisting of women, children and old men.

[37] As per Tahmas Khan Miskin's account, the Dal Khalsa forces decided to enact the same methods used in the earlier Chotta Ghalughara, where 2½ gash steps were used to tackle the army.

[32] Sukhdial Singh surreally describes the sort of landscape the mobile slaughter and battle occurred in: sandy mounds, little or no bodies of water to re-hydrate oneself, Sikh stragglers who fell behind were abandoned.

[32] When the Sikh warriors witnessed their women, children, and elders being mercilessly slaughtered when the convoy's defence was breached, it reinvigorated their fighting spirit to protect the survivors from the same fate.

"More than once, the troops of the invader broke the cordon and mercilessly butchered the women, children and elderly inside, but each time the Sikh warriors regrouped and managed to push back the attackers.

[34] Some Sikh women, children, and elders tried to escape their certain doom by hiding out in the minarets of cow dung, jawar (sorghum), millet, and corn located outside these villages.

[32] As per local lore, cries (jaikaras) of 'Bole So Nihal - Sat Sri Akal' could be heard being yelled from the Malwa, which were Malwai Sikh reinforcements.

[32] Another reason for their withdrawal was that the Durranis were warned by the local populace that the upcoming area of Punjab they would have to traverse through to continue assailing the Sikhs was heavily dominated by Sikh-populated villages with few bodies of water to be found.

[8] The Afghan forces had inflicted great losses on the Sikh nation and had in turn many of them killed and wounded; they were exhausted having not had any rest in two days.

[8][4][5][6][7][37] A contemporary Muslim chronicler named Tahmas Khan Miskin, who was a commander of a contingent in Abdali's army, estimated that 25,000 Sikhs were killed, which Harbans Singh believes is more reliable.

[8] The Sikhs lay wreck on the Lahore region and Jalandhar Doab during July and August of the same year (1762), Ahmad Shah Abdali was powerless to stop them.