Muntakhab al-lubab 108.6

108.6

An extraordinary incident now occurred. A great number of Hindu infantry soldiers had been killed all at once (in the explosion), and their friends were unable to seek and bring out their bodies. The violence of the shock had entirely disfigured them, and it was not possible to distinguish between Musulman and Hindu, friend and stranger. The flames of animosity burst forth among all the gunners against the commander of the artillery. So at night they secretly set fire to the defences (marhala), which had been raised at great trouble and expense against the fire from above, in the hope and with the design that the fire might reach the corpses of the slaughtered Hindus. A great conflagration followed, and for the space of a week served as a bright lamp both for besiegers and besieged. A number of Hindus and Musulmans who were alive in the huts were unable to escape, and were burnt, the living with the dead.