Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c21.s5.20

v2.c21.s5.20

Only three weeks after the Emperor's accession, the wazir's artillerymen made a row for their pay in his mansion, stopping ingress and egress and dragging out his chief manager, Aqibat Mahmud Khan, whose dress they tore off. Only an order on a banker could pacify them (21 June, 1754). Imad blamed Aqibat for having brought this public humiliation on him, because that all-powerful servant used to control all his affairs and receive and dispose of all his revenue without his master's knowledge. So, he called Aqibat in the evening (of 24 June) for a consultation, severely censured him, and had him stabbed to death by his Afghan captains. The ex-favourite's corpse was thrown down on the sand-bank below the wazir's garden.* The same day the captive Ahmad Shah and his mother were blinded. With the approval of Imad, his rogue of a Kashmiri henchman Aqibat had forged a letter purporting to have been written by the ex-Emperor and sealed with his private seal, calling upon Intizam to rescue his former master from prison, take him to the Rajputs and with their help restore him to the Delhi throne, when the wazirship would be conferred on Intizam again. After repeated pressing, the reluctant consent of Alamgir II was secured and his rival was blinded soon after nightfall. But the moving spring of this atrocious deed had himself been killed two hours before! Divine justice sometimes acts with lightning speed. The next day, the other soldiers of the wazir assembled before his house, clamouring to be paid their arrears as the artillerymen had been. The streets were blocked and the city gates had to be closed on account of the crowd and tumult.