Khwaja Abid Khan
Khwaja Abid Khan (an Uzbek officer of the former Mughal governors) was the 'Abdali' (Afgan) governor of Lahore. In 1762, he attacked the Sukarchakia misl at Gujranwala. Some Sikhs in his army turned sides and joined Charat Singh Sukarchakia's forces. Khwaja Abid was defeated and driven back to Lahore.
Flushed with confidence the misl attacked and defeated the Afghan Faujdars of Jalandhar.
The faujdar of Sarhind Zain Khan Mohmand came out of Sarhind fort to subdue them, joining forces with the Nawab of Malerkotla. By this time Abdali had crossed the Beas and Sutlej along the foothills and had sent couriers to Zain Khan, instructing him to attack the Sikhs from the front.
In the fighting the Afghan vanguard was defeated and driven back to Malerkotla with the exception of Murtaza Khan Bharech who held his ground on a hillock. A detachment under the Afghan Wazir, Shah Wali Khan, joined him and rallied Zain Khan's forces while the Abdali's main force attacked the Sikhs in the flank.
From noon till the evening of the 5th of February the running fight continued for over forty kilometers; the Sikhs were defeated and driven beyond Barnala with the loss of 10,000 men. The day is marked in Sikh history as the Ghallughara (the great scrimmage). Ahmad Shah next attacked Ala Singh for aiding the Sikhs from across the Sutlej and forced him to submit. Taking the Patiala chief with him Abdali marched back to Lahore. On the way he demolished the Harmandir Sahib, at Amritsar and desecrated the waters of the reservoir by killing cows and throwing their grisly remains in it.
Ahmad Shah spent the whole of 1763 subduing a rebellion in the distant province of Khurasan. Hearing this, the Dal Khalsa assembled at Amritsar once again on the 4th of November and restored the Harmandar Sahib.
In February 1764 the Sikhs, attacking Lahore, killed Khwaja Abid in a battle outside the city. His deputy Kabuli Mal made peace by paying money to the Sikhs and cutting off the noses and ears of the butchers who had killed the cows at Amritsar in 1762 (the butchers not the men who had given the orders).
