Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s3.1

v2.c22.s3.1

Mughlāni Begam, finding herself really a captive of the usurper, sent out secret letters to Imād-ul-mulk the wazir of Delhi and to Ahmad Shah Abdali at Qandahar, appealing to them to liberate her. Her mother's brother, Khwājah Abdullah Khan (the younger son of the former governor Abdus Samad Khan, Saif-ud-daulah I) had gone to the Durrani Court and secured an order on Amān Khan, Ahmad Shah's agent in Peshawar, to accompany Abdullah to Lahor with a force of 10,000 men of Kabul and Peshawar (but very few Durrānis or Qizilbashes) and restore the Begam to power. Khwājah Mirzā could make no stand against this force, and was treacherously imprisoned with most of the Mughalia captains, by Amān Khan during a visit to that Afghan under a promise of safety.* Amān Khan now entered the defenceless city of Lahor and by beating all the substantial men and conducting a ruthless general plunder, collected a large sum, and then left for Peshawar, after installing Mughlāni Begam as subahdar and Khwājah Abdullah as her deputy and handing Bihkāri Khan over to her. She at once had him beaten to death by her harem servants, crying out, "The blood of the two (my husband and son) is on you. This is your due recompense for it!" This happened about April 1755.