The Battle of Attock (also called the Battle of Haidru or the Battle of Chuch) was fought near the fort of Attock on the Indus River between the Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Durrani forces of Kabul led by Fateh Khan Barakzai. The battle resulted in a decisive Sikh victory and the permanent capture of the fort of Attock, which commanded the principal crossing of the Indus. It was the first pitched battle between the Sikhs and Afghans.
The fort of Attock with its 134 surrounding villages was incorporated into the Sikh Empire after a negotiated surrender in March 1813, but Fateh Khan Barakzai refused to accept the loss and mounted a campaign to recover it. The subsequent siege of Attock and the relief expedition under Dewan Mokham Chand culminated in a battle on the plains of Chhachh near the village of Haidru. The victory confirmed the effectiveness of the military reforms Ranjit Singh had introduced and opened the way for Sikh expansion across the Indus toward Peshawar and the Khyber Pass.
Background
Durrani possessions and decline
In the second half of the eighteenth century, Ahmad Shah Durrani held eight territories in north-western India: the provinces of Peshawar, Attock, Kashmir, Lahore, Sirhind, Multan, Sind and the state of Bahawalpur. Sikh sardars captured Lahore and Sirhind during the period of Durrani decline, and Multan remained in Sikh occupation from 1771 to 1779 before being recovered by Ahmad Shah's son Timur Shah Durrani. The other territories continued to be governed by Afghan nobles appointed from Kandahar and Kabul.
Ahmad Shah died in 1772. Timur Shah kept the remaining Durrani kingdom intact until his death in 1793, after which his several sons by different wives began to quarrel among themselves and the kingdom descended into confusion and anarchy. The weak rule of Shah Zaman (1793–1800), the languishing reign of Mahmud Shah Durrani (1800), and the indolence of Shah Shuja Durrani (1803) accelerated the decline. Mahmud Shah regained the throne in 1809 and entrusted full control of his government to his Wazir, Fateh Khan Barakzai.
Shah Shuja fled to India after losing the throne. Jahandad Khan, the Durrani governor of Attock, captured him and sent him to his brother Ata Muhammad Khan, the governor of Kashmir. Both brothers were sons of the late Wazir Sher Muhammad Khan and grandsons of Shah Vali Khan Bamzai, the famous Wazir of Ahmad Shah Durrani. They refused to submit to the Barakzai Wazir Fateh Khan and paid no tribute to Mahmud Shah. Kashmir was the richest province of the Durrani kingdom, and Fateh Khan was determined to seize Ata Muhammad Khan's accumulated hoard and entrust the province to his own brother Azim Khan. With the collaboration of Ranjit Singh, he succeeded in expelling Ata Muhammad Khan from Kashmir.
Sikh expansion under Ranjit Singh
Ranjit Singh became the ruler of Lahore in 1799 and rapidly consolidated his authority over the Sikh misls of the Punjab. He captured Amritsar in 1802 and extended his control over the territories between the Sutlej and the Indus through a combination of military force and diplomacy. By 1809, he had signed the Treaty of Amritsar with the British East India Company, which fixed the Sutlej as the boundary between British and Sikh territory. This agreement blocked further Sikh expansion eastward and turned Ranjit Singh's ambitions toward the west and north-west.
Ranjit Singh devoted considerable attention to modernising his army. He employed European mercenaries, including former soldiers of the East India Company, to train his infantry and artillery along European lines. His regular regiments, known as the Fauj-i-Khas, were drilled in linear tactics and equipped with muskets and bayonets. These reforms produced a disciplined standing army that could be deployed for extended campaigns, in contrast to the traditional irregular levies that had characterised earlier Sikh warfare.
The traveler Baron von Hügel later observed that the plain of Chhachh, where the battle was fought, had been for eight centuries a territory where successive waves of invaders from the north-west Alexander the Great, Mahmud of Ghazni, Timur, Babur, Nader Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali and had passed through to conquer India.The Historian Ganda Singh notes that it was Ranjit Singh who recovered the territory lost about eight centuries earlier and turned the tide of invasion in the opposite direction.
Strategic importance of Attock
The fort of Attock was built by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1581 to dominate the passage over the Indus and to secure his kingdom from the restless frontier tribes. It was situated on a height on the eastern bank of the Indus and was built under the supervision of Khawaja Shams-ud-Din Khwafi. The fort was constructed in the form of a parallelogram, with its shorter sides about 400 yards (370 m) each and the other sides about double that length. The walls were of polished stone.
The fort commanded the principal crossing point between the Punjab and Afghanistan and controlled the approach to the Khyber Pass. It dominated the crossing place on the route followed by nearly all invaders of India from the north-west, and has been called the "key to the frontier" or the "Gateway of India." The armies of Alexander, Timur and Nader Shah had crossed the Indus at this point in different ages. Its location was of great importance from both the military and the commercial point of view. Chhabra writes that whoever wanted to make India safe against foreign attack had to control the fort of Attock.
Opposite the Attock fort, on the western bank of the Indus, lay the fort of Khairabad, also built by Akbar.
Prelude
Kashmir campaign of 1812
In 1812, Ranjit Singh and Fateh Khan Barakzai agreed on a joint expedition to conquer Kashmir from Ata Muhammad Khan, who had refused to submit to the Barakzai wazir. Ranjit Singh and Fateh Khan met at Rohtas or somewhere near Rawalpindi and came to an agreement. There are different versions of the precise terms, but it appears Ranjit Singh counted upon a share of Kashmir and either in territory or in revenues and possession of Multan.
Dewan Mokham Chand was sent with 12,000 Sikh troops to join the Afghan forces. Kashmir was occupied and Ata Muhammad Khan was expelled in the middle of February 1813. However, Fateh Khan did not fulfil his commitments to Ranjit Singh, and the Sikh allies left the country in disgust. The exact nature of the agreement and the extent of the failure to honour it are disputed in the sources, but the breach led directly to Ranjit Singh's decision to seize Attock.
Negotiations with Jahandad Khan
Ranjit Singh had not relied solely on Fateh Khan's good faith. While the joint expedition was being planned in December 1812, Jahandad Khan, the governor of Attock, became restless at the prospect of his brother's defeat. Ata Muhammad Khan advised Jahandad to negotiate a deal with Ranjit Singh for the surrender of Attock. While Ranjit Singh was still at Rohtas negotiating with Fateh Khan, Jahandad Khan sent confidential messengers to the Maharaja. He demanded security against Kabul, a jagir (land grant) in the Punjab, and a handsome allowance. Ranjit Singh received the agents warmly, approved the proposal, and asked Jahandad Khan to meet him at Wazirabad. The terms were amicably settled and the bargain was confirmed. Both parties appointed spies to report the result of the Wazirs's Kashmir campaign at the earliest opportunity. According to Chhabra, Ranjit Singh was intriguing with Jahandad Khan even before the expedition on Kashmir was led, which some writers have cited as the reason Fateh Khan refused to share the Kashmir booty.
Surrender of Attock
While leaving Rohtas, Ranjit Singh appointed Daya Singh as commander of a strong contingent stationed at Serai Kali,11 km from Hasan Abdal towards Rawalpindi, with orders to occupy the fort of Attock when offered. Another force under Bhayya Ram Singh Purabia was posted at Hasan Abdal, 53 km from Attock, to reinforce Daya Singh in an emergency. Devi Das, Mit Singh Bharania and Fakir Aziz-ud-din were sent from Lahore to stay at Hasan Abdal to complete the negotiations.
Kashmir fell to the wazir in the middle of February 1813, and the news reached Lahore and Attock simultaneously around 20 February. Jahandad Khan contacted Daya Singh to take possession of the fort. The diplomatic party headed by Fakir Aziz-ud-din asked Daya Singh to wait until the safe return of Dewan Mokham Chand, who was with the wazir at the head of a strong Sikh force making its way out of the Pir Panjal mountains. The Diwan was hurriedly returning in view of the Attock affair. The three parties reached Attock on 9 March. Abdur Rahim, the garrison master of the fort, relinquished it to the Maharaja's officers and helped them firmly establish their hold on it. Jahandad Khan went to Lahore. The fort of Attock with134 villages became a part of Ranjit Singh's kingdom at the cost of one lakh rupees.
The following articles fell into the hands of the Sikhs in the fort: 3,510 maunds (1,400 quintals) of grain, 430 maunds (170 quintals) of ammunition, 235 maunds (93 quintals) of tobacco and rock salt, and seventy pieces of guns, mortars and swivels.
Ranjit Singh refused to accept congratulations and nazar (ceremonial offerings) from his courtiers. He expected an attack on the fort by Fateh Khan while the wazir was returning from Kashmir to Kabul.
After the fort passed into Sikh possession, Qazi Ghulam Muhammad, who had been at Attock to decide religious cases, crossed the Indus and took refuge in Khatak country under Firoz Khan. The Sikhs plundered his house and set it on fire. Amir Singh Sandhanwalia later called him back, restored a portion of his old jagir, and granted him a new jagir worth Rs. 300 a year in the Khatak country. After some time, Ranjit Singh appointed him his wakil (agent) for the Khataks and Yusufzais. He held this office until 1842, when he was put to death by a Nihang.
Military preparations
Afghan response
Fateh Khan entrusted the government of Kashmir to his brother Azim Khan. Upon hearing the news of the fall of Attock, he sent a detachment to intercept Dewan Mohkam Chand, who had already left the valley, but the Sikh force could not be overtaken. The wazir was deeply perturbed over the loss of Attock, as the rulers of Kabul attached the greatest importance to the possession of Peshawar, which controlled the Khyber Pass, and to Attock, which dominated the passage across the Indus to Kashmir.
He reorganised his army for the coming battle and allowed his soldiers one month's holiday in Kashmir to refresh themselves. He arrived at Muzaffarabad towards the close of May 1813. The advance party under his brother Dost Mohammad Khan arrived in Hazara not far from Hasan Abdal, gathering information about the Sikh positions and stopping supplies sent from Lahore from reaching the fort. The wazir joined him there.
In Kabul, Fateh Khan was busy recruiting soldiers and collecting ammunition for a strong attack on the Sikh garrison in Attock. He issued orders to his brother Jabbar Khan, the governor of Derajat, to purchase horses of the best breed and to maintain and train the best troops. He warned Ranjit Singh that he must evacuate the fort of Attock immediately or expect to face him there very soon.
Sikh reinforcement
Ranjit Singh prepared a large army and sent it toward Attock. The force was placed under the command of Dewan Mokham Chand, his most experienced general, and included Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa and Sardar Desa Singh Majithia. The soldiers had taken the measure of Durrani strength during the Kashmir campaign and did not think it difficult to wrest the fort from them. The British East India Company supplied two thousand muskets to the Maharaja for the campaign.
Ranjit Singh had also fully strengthened the fort of Attock with troops and arms, in addition to a large supply of food.
Campaign
Battle of Hasan Abdal (7 June 1813)
Fateh Khan attacked the Sikh outpost at Hasan Abdal on 7 June 1813 with 2,000 Afghans. The Sikh detachment at Hasan Abdal, commanded by Bhayya Ram Singh Purabia, had only 500 horse and foot. About fifty men were killed on both sides. Ram Singh and his men took to flight, and his entire baggage, horses and camels fell into the wazir's hands.
Following this success, Fateh Khan and Dost Mohammad Khan closely besieged the fort of Attock and cut off all supplies to it. Daya Singh held the fort with Devi Das as his deputy. By 20 June 1813, the food supplies as well as ammunition in the fort were completely exhausted. Frantic appeals were made to Lahore to save the garrison and the fort.