Lehal Library

The Indus to the Ganges 169 across the Jumna to loot the Jumna-Gangetic Doab. Meanwhile Najaf Khan reorganized the Mughal army, chose a trusted relative, Mirza Shafi, to be commander and sent him in pursuit of the Sikhs. Mirza Shafi's chance came when the Sikhs were returning with the booty they had taken in the territories of the Nawab Wazir. He charged the embittered Zabita Khan, whose estates the Sikhs had despoiled, with the mission of sowing discord among the Sikhs. 'Set one party against the other.... Put them all to fight among themselves,' he counselled. The Rohilla succeeded in his task. The Malwais fell out among themselves. Mirza Shafi captured Gajpat Singh ofJind along with three other Sardars and expelled the others from the Jumna-Gangetic Doab. Mirza Shafi followed up his success by carrying the war into the Sikh homeland. An army of Mughals and Rohillas proceeded up the Grand Trunk Road and took Buria, Mustafabad, and Sadhaura. The Dal Khalsa under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia again came down from the north to oppose its advance. The two armies avoided fighting a pitched battle; instead, they organized raids behind each other's lines. All that Mirza Shafi achieved in months of desultory skirmishing was to win an engagement at Indri (April 1781) and to keep the Sikhs on, he- defensive in their own country. He c-uld not prevent them from going behind him and raiding the Gangetic Doab nor, within a few weeks, liberating most of the towns he had captured. Mirza Shafi's expedition into Malwa was an expensive failure and had to be abandoned by the middle ofche year. Zabita Khan was entrusted by the Mughal government with the task of negotiating with the Sikhs. The mis Ida.rs· estates were confirmed; their right to levy rakh1 on lands between Panipat and Delhi and the upper Gangetic Doab was conceded; and they were invited to recmit for service in the imperial army. In the Suburbs of Delhi Najaf Khan died in April 1782. The struggle for power that ensued gave the Sikhs another chance to become the sovereign