History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c44.s7.1

v3.c44.s7.1

Khush-hal Khan,† the chieftain of the Khataks, seems to have taken up arms against the Mughals at this time. This large and warlike clan occupies the southern part of the Peshawar district and much of Kohat and Banu. Khush-hal had years ago inspired defiance of the imperial Government. But an Afghan's kinsmen are his greatest foes. The Khatak chieftain was invited to a *darbar* at Peshawar, treacherously arrested in concert with his uncles, fettered with shackles weighing 10 lbs. each, and sent off to Hindustan as a prisoner. The viceroy of Kabul objecting to the release of this turbulent man, the Emperor kept him in prison at Delhi (April 1664) and Rantambhor. The poet solaced his captive hours by writing spirited verses in Pushtu, denouncing Aurangzib's injustice and cruelty. and cursing the Indian climate. But he evidently made terms with the Government, for he returned to Delhi in December 1666, and three months later we find him and his son Ashraf in the Mughal force that invaded the Yusufzai country. The Yusufzais were the hereditary enemies of the Khataks, as the boundaries of the two clans met in the middle of the Peshawar district, and a wedge of Khatak settlement was also inserted in the body of the Yusufzai territory north of the Indus. Khush-hal's father had been slain by the Yusufzais. Prompted either by love of revenge or by the wish to secure release from prison, he readily accepted a command in the Mughal service, and fought in the Yusufzai campaign at the head of his clansmen.