How Ranjit Singh was interested in Kashmir

Fath Khan, the vazir of Shah Mahmud, resolved to punish the governors of Attock and Kashmir for the assistance they had given to Zaman Shah and Shah Shuja’. In this manner, from the proximity of the territories, Fath Khan and Ranjit Singh were brought into close communication. In 1813 they entered  into an agreement. By this agreement it was stipulated that Ranjit Singh, in consideration of a share of the Plunder – a present of eight lakhs – and some prospective advantages, would not only allow Fath Khan a free passage through his territories but furnish him with an auxiliary force of 12,000 Sikhs. ” As both parties were adepts in fraud,” says Henry Beveridge in A Comprehensive History of India (Vol 3, p.227), ” each endeavoured to turn the agreement to his own sole advantage.” Fath Khan, having recovered Kashmir, refused to share the plunder alleging that the Sikhs had not assisted him according to promise. And Ranjit Singh, by means of an intrigue, made himself master of Attock, and refused to part with it. It appears that, though Fath Khan wanted Ranjit to observe benevolent neutrality, he did not like Ranjit’s army entering the Valley. Fath Khan, therefore, hurried into Kashmir ahead of Ranjit’s troops led by Mokham Chand. But Mohkam too reached by a short cut. Fath Khan refused to reward the Sikhs because they did no fighting. The chief gain to the Sikhs was the securing of the person of Shah Shuja.

For the broad details of this affair let us refer to Ranjit Singh’s historian Kanhayya Lal, the author of the Zafar-nama-i-Ranjit Singh, who writes – “At this time Fath Khan, who governed the district of Peshawar on behalf of the sovereign of Afghanistan, sent an envoy with presents to Ranjit Singh to inform Him that Ata Muhammad, governor of Kashmir, had cast of his allegiance to the then ruler of the Afghanistan, and had been joined by the fugitive Shah Shuja who hoped to recover his throne by his aid : but that the governor of Kashmir might at once be reduced to obedience if the forces of Ranjit Singh were to co-operate with those of Fath Khan and invade Kashmir. Accordingly Ranjit Singh ordered his commander-in-chief Diwan Mohkam Chand to march at once to Kashmir; and when the latter reached the frontier, Fath Khan likewise arrived from the direction of Peshawar. However, when they crossed the Pir Panjal they found that all the chiefs and Rajas of the mountains had became unfriendly, and being unwilling to meet them had gone out of their way. When the united forces reached Hurapor, the first point across the pass in the Kashmir Valley, they first met with resistance at Ballapor near Shupian, but defeated Ata Muhammad and Shah Shuja became prisoners, and Fath Khan who hated them mortally, believed he had them in his grasp, but was disappointed by Mokham Chand, who took them under his protection.”  But according to the Tarkh Sultani (pp. 233-35) Fath Khan surrendered Shah Shuja to Mohkam Chand. Kanhayya Lal continues : “The Afghan general immediately dispatched a courier to Ranjit Singh, with a request to order both these exalted prisoners to be given up to him. The question, however, being a knotty one the Maharaja did not wish to decide it hastily. And whilst Ranjit was considering what answer to send, a messenger arrived from Talamba with presents from Shah (or Wafa) Begam, the spouse of Shah Shuja, who had taken up her residence in that town. The lady expressed her anxiety and requested the Maharaja not to surrender Shah Shuja to his enemy, Fath Khan, but to receive him at the court of Lahore, in which case she promised to present Ranjit Singh with the famous daimond, Kuh or Koh-i-Nur, which she described as a gem of priceless value, and indeed a “Mountain of Light”.

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