| Battle of Jamrud | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Afghan-Sikh wars | |||||||||
A portrait of the Jamrud Fort |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Sikh Empire | Durrani Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Hari Singh Nalwa † | Akbar Khan Afzal Khan |
||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 600 in the fort, with 10,000. | 8,000, with approx 15,000 irregulars | ||||||||
| † Killed in action | |||||||||
|
|||||
The Battle of Jamrud was fought between the Kingdom of Kabul and the Sikh Empire. The Sikhs were building up towards crossing the Khyber pass and capturing Jelalabad and then Kabul itself. The Afghan attempt to dislodge the Sikhs from the strategic Khyber pass failed, but the tyranful killing of Sikh General Hari Singh Nalwa[1] limited the Khyber pass as the western extent of the Sikh Empire.
Contents |
The Battle of Jamrud was fought between the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh and the Barakzai Afghan Emir Dost Muhammad Khan. The Afghans had been losing their long held territories to Sikhs over the preceding years, and had seen their once mighty empire shrink with the loss of Punjab, Multan, Kashmir, Derajat, Hazara and Peshawar. The last three now largely constitute Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa. The loss of Peshawar was the most personal as the inhabitants of the region were fellow Pashtuns and the town of Peshawar was the summer capital of the Afghan Emirs.[2]
Towards the end of 1836, Hari Singh Nalwa attacked and captured the small, though very strategic, fortified Misha Khel Khyberi village of Jamrud situated on the south-side of a range of mountains at the mouth of the Khyber pass. With the conquest of Jamrud, the frontier of the Sikh Empire now bordered the frontier of Afghanistan. This Sikh victory at Jamrud was followed by the resounding defeat of the Yusafzai chief, Fatteh Khan of Panjtar.
In 1837, the Sikh Army was in Lahore for Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh's wedding, (the grandson of Maharaja Ranjit Singh). It is alleged that inside information on the goings-on in Lahore were sent to Kabul by the Dogras which encouraged the Afghans to attack and attempt to reclaim Peshawar. The Emir of Afghanistan Dost Muhammad Khan immediately rushed his army accompanied by no less than five of his sons to drive the Sikhs out of Peshawar. Although the battle was not won by the Afghan army, much appreciated Sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa, was killed in the encounter [3]
On taking Jamrud, Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa had asked his deputy Mahan Singh to repair the small existing fort at the entrance to the Khyber pass. Hari Singh Nalwa had simultaneously laid the foundation for a large fort in the vicinity of the smaller one, but construction activity had to cease because of the commencement of hostilities.[4]
On this occasion, a handful of Sikh forces faced the wrath of the entire Afghan Army. For want of timely help from Lahore Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa was killed, but the Afghans could not dislodge the Sikh troops from the fort. One view is that the decision to abandon the campaign to reclaim Peshawar had more to do with the logistic supply problems of the Afghan army. Peshawar could easily have been taken but the army was out of supplies and a decision was taken to withdraw. Another view supports the claim that the Afghans were never sure if Hari Singh Nalwa was merely wounded or was really dead. It was the fear that he might still be alive that kept the Afghan army undecided about its next move. The Afghans remained in a state of limbo for almost ten days. When Sikh reinforcements from Lahore arrived, they hastened back to Kabul.
The Afghans claimed victory,[5] though they failed to achieve any of their stated objectives. The impression which resulted from the ensuing conflict was such as to convince the men of Dost Mohammad’s army of their total inability to contend with the Sikhs, but the death of Hari Singh Nalwa was a serious set back to the Sikh Forward Policy. "Even if the victory had been more decided" observed the author of the Peshawar Gazetteer sixty years later, "it would have been dearly purchased by the Sikhs, with the loss of so brave a warrior as Hari Singh"[6]
As a result of this battle, Jamrud and the Khyber pass became the western limits of Sikh influence. The loss of Hari Singh Nalwa proved a major blow to the Sikh Army. In June 1839, the death of Ranjit Singh plunged the kingdom into dynastic conflict. The British eventually fought 2 wars to defeat and dissolve the Sikh Empire.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||