History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c48.s5.5

v3.c48.s5.5

Even in the darkest days of Guru Govind's life bands of his followers, each acting under an independent leader, used to harass the Mughal officers and raid parts of the Panjab. Of one such band the fate is thus described in a letter of Aurangzib (written about 1701-1705): "I learn from the news-letter of Shah Alam's camp sent by Khwajah Mubarak that nearly 20,000 Hindus, who call themselves the Khalsa of Govind the follower of Nanak, had assembled and gone to the country of the Barakzai under the escort of the Yusufzai Afghans, and that the men of the escort and other Afghans of the neighbourhood of the Nilab river had fallen on them, so that the party had been killed or drowned. The Emperor orders that the prince should imprison these misbelievers, and expel them from that district."*