Lehal Library

152 The Agrarian Uprising of the village of .Khem Karan fell in the fighting and joined the ranks of the many honoured martyrs of Sikh history. For the third time the Afghans blew up the Harimandir and filled the pool with dead cows. Amritsar yielded little loot and no more than thirty Sikh lives. Abdali turned his footsteps towards Batala, ravaging the country in the most savage manner. Nur Mohammed writes: 'Whichever way the army turned, the people were massacred in broad daylight. No distinction was made between Sikhs and non-Sikhs. The people ran away and hid themselves wherever they could .... No one can count the number of things that fell into the hands of the crusaders. Whether men or beasts, all fed upon nothing but sugar-candy and sugarcane. The stomachs of all, big and small, slaves and slave-girls, were filled with these four thingsbeef, sugarcane, sugar-candy, and sesame. ' 44 The visitation of the Afghans and Baluchis is recalled to this day in the saying: Khiidii pitii liiht dii, biiJti Ahmed Sahe dii. To eat and drink is all we know, For the rest to Ahmed Shah doth go. Ahmt>J Shah Abdali went leisurely across Jullundur Doab, amusing himself, hunting deer and tiger, and looting the country. He passed along the Himalayan foothills near Pinjaur and arrived at Kunjpura in February 1765. The warm breeze of spring reminded the Afghans that summer would soon be on them and the blazing inferno of the Punjab plains would then become wholly advantageous to their Sikh adversaries. Nasir Khan Baluch advised Abdali to leave the task of subjugating the Sikhs to his Indian allies: Rohillas, Jats. Marathas, and Ala Singh of Patiala, 'for the hare of a country can be best caught by a bound of the same country.• Abdali accepted the advice and headed for the territories of Ala Singh. He passed through Sirhind, which had suffered from the hands 44 Jang No.ma.. pp. 103--4.