by Jia Lal Kilam

CHAPTER XIV
Kailas Dar and Conquest of Kashmir

AFTER Nuruddin Khan had left, disorder again set in the country. Lal Mohammad Khan, a Jagirdar of Berul (where he had built a strong fort) and a trusted servant of Nuruddin Khan turned traitor and having defeated Jan Mohammad, became himself the ruler of the country. His rule, however, did not last longer than six months, but even during these six months, he took all possible measures in dealing out a terrible blow to the Kashmiri Pandits whom he nearly wiped out of existence. After Kailas Dar had gone out of Kashmir, the Pandits were left without a leader and disorder began to creep in their ranks. The influence that they had commanded and the power they had gathered in the past waned considerably. But they were generally believed to possess enormous wealth. Lal Mohammad Khan knew that he could not maintain his position without ceaseless fighting. For this he required money which he hoped to force out of the Pandits. The result was that he started a campaign of ruthless oppression against them. Loot, arson, and murder were freely practised upon them, and besides they were made to undergo humiliation in various ways. The Shias too got a sufficient measure of trouble. Lal Mohammad was not destined to remain long in power. Ahmad Shah Abdali was apprised of the news about Lal Mohammad's rebellion, while at Lahore. He appointed Khurram Khan to the Governorship of Kashmir. Pandit Kailas Dar who also had gone to Lahore to meet Abdali was appointed as his Sahibkar. Both Khurram Khan and Kailas Dar started for Kashmir at the head of a powerful army. Lal Mohammad feeling his position insecure left Srinagar and took refuge in his own fort at Beru. Khurram Khan and Kailas Dar made a triumphant entry into the city of Srinagar in the year 1766 A. D. and were acclaimed by the populace as saviours from the tyrannies of Lal Mohammad. Pandit Kailas Dar came to be recognised as a great force, and he became all but in name the real ruler of the country, Khurram Khan (though a gentleman) was ease loving and indolent to a degree. He was besides of a whimsical temperament combining with it a superstitious bent of mind. The result was that all powers of the State came to be wielded by Kailas Dar, who in addition to his popularity with the people exercised an enormous influence with Abdali. But yet he had his own enemies. Mir Muqim was dead. But his son Mir Faqirulla Kanth was all these years, planning the destruction of the Pandit, whom he believed to be the murderer of Mir Muqim. With the help of Mohammad Khan a Bomba Chief, he planned an insurrection and took possession of the town of Sopore. Lal Mohammad who was till then unsubdued also joined Faqirulla. Khurram Khan and Kailas Dar also collected some force and started for Sopore to fight Faqirulla. But as already stated Khurram Khan was of a superstitious bent of mind. On reaching Pattan, he came across on the road side a flock of sheep and goats. This otherwised harmless incident was interpreted by him as a bad omen. He took into his head that there was nothing but disaster ahead. He turned back from Pattan and not waiting even at Srinagar he took Kailas Dar along with himself and started for Kabul and left the city to the mercy of Mir Faqirulla and his supporters. Having found no body to withstand him, Faqirulla Kanth himself assumed the reins of the country's rule in the year 1767 A. D. He started his rule with an announcement of allegiance towards Abdali, and as a matter of fact he began to rule in his name.

Mir Faqirulla is one of the most despicable figures in the history of Kashmir. He was both revengeful and selfish, besides a coward. For his own self aggrandisement he enlisted the support of petty Bomba chieftains, but when the time came for his showing a courageous front he acted like a coward, and fled away from tbe battlefield, leaving the country at the disposal of his own barbarous supporters. As soon as he took the reins of the Government in his hand, he turned his attention towards the Kashmiri Pandits. In order to avenge the death of his father Mir Muqim which he believed was brought about by Pandit Kailas Dar, he fell upon the Pandit's coreligionists and began to work for their destruction in a well planned manner. The services of a large number of Bombas were enlisted from the neighbouring hilly districts with the sole purpose of teasing, tormenting and tyrannising the Pandits. The Bombas did their job so well that even now people recall with a shudder the atrocities which the Bombas used to perpetrate upon the Pandits. Each morning a number of Bombas entered the Pandit houses. The inmates were humiliated, put under arrest, and thereafter their houses were put on fire. Those who were put under arrest were either put to death or given the option of Islam. By such means about two thousand Pandits were forcibly convered to Islam. A large number of Pandits was killed besides. "In short the methods adopted by Mir Faqirulla and his Bomba soldiers in tormenting the Pandits baffle all description", so says Hassan the Muslim historian. The Pandits thus suppressed Faqirulla began to feel himself as invincible. Low people who constantly bore him company added to his vanity by means of base flatteries. He became addicted to excessive drinking and within a short time broke off from his allegiance to Abdali and refused to pay his annual tribute. This affrontry on behalf of Faqirulla could not be taken lying down by Abdali and the result was that Nuruddin Khan Bamezai was deputed a second time for the conquest of Kashmir. With a considerable force Nuruddin Khan reached Kashmir. Faqirulla also made a show of resistance and went out to meet Nuruddin Khan, with a Bomba army. A few skirmishes decided the fate of the battle. Faqirulla finding himself unable to withstand a strong Afghan army turned from the battIe field and fled in some direction. His Bomba soldiers having got nothing to do fell back upon the city of Srinagar and plundered it in a leisurely manner, till it was rescued by Nuruddin Khan. This event took place in 1767 A.D.

Nuruddin Khan started his rule with great promise. He brought all the disturbing factors under control, and established peace with an iron hand. But not long after, he too conceived notions of independence - and refused to pay the annual tribute to the Afghan overlord. Mohammad Khan was appointed in his stead as the Subedar of Kashmir, but Nuruddin Khan refused to hand over the charge of administration to him. The complicated turn that the Kashmir affairs were taking became baffling even for a veteran general like Abdali. He sought advice and Pandit Kailas was ready with it. Kailas Dar, as already - stated, had accompanied Khurram Khan to Kabul when the latter has shown a white feather even before the battle had begun and was staying on at Kabul during the whole of the period, when the above kaleidoscopic scenes were taking place in Kashmir. Kailas Dar sought an audience with Abdali. He undertook the conquest of Kashmir if sufficient forces were made available to him and further pursuaded Abdali to appoint Khurram Khan as the Governor of Kashmir. The request was acceded to and both Khurram Khan and Kailas Dar started for Kashmir at the head of a huge army. They had hardly reached Peshawar when Nuruddin fled frcm Kashmir leaving behind himself Lal Mohammad Khan to carry on the administrrtion of the country and to fight Khurram Khan and Kailas Dar as best as he could. Lal Mohammad Khan was nothing more than a marauder pure and simple, and he under the pretext of making collections for war expenses, started looting all the leading merchants and the Pandits in particular. But before any action was fought, he left the field and shut himself in his own fort. Khurram Khan and Kailas Dar made a triumphant entry into the city. This event took place in the year 1770. A. D. Pandit Kailas Dar was now at the height of his glory. His popularity was unbounded. He had proved himself as a liberator of the people from the tyrannies which were inflicted upon them in no distant past. But alas ! the high hopes that the people entertained about their future proved to be a mirage and again the people had to plod their weary way through a desert of mis-rule in which the triumphant entry of Kailas Dar was proved to be a solitary oasis of no permanent value.