1 26 THE SIKHS TAKE SIRHIND A. D. 1763.
2 The co-operation of Runjeet Deo, Raja of Jumraoo,
3 having been secured with some difficulty, a strong de-
4 tachment was sent from Labor under command of NooR-
5 OOD-DEEN, and the Raja conducted it across the Peer
6 Punjal mountains into the valley, which submitted after
7 a slight resistance. Sookh Jeewun being made pri-
8 soner, was punished with the loss of his eyes. Ahmed
9 Shah having made these arrangements to secure his
10 territory east of the Indus, returned to Kabool at the
11 end of the year 1762. He left Kabulee Mul, a
12 Hindoo, as his Governor of Labor.
13 No sooner had the Abdalee departed, than the Sikhs
14 re-appeared in the field. A Goormutta, or council of the
15 sect, was held publicly at Umritsur, and a large body of
16 them marched thence to Kusoor, (or Kasoor,) which was
17 taken and sacked, and yielded a considerable booty.
18 Elate with this success they collected a larger force, and
19 determined on the attack of Sirhind. They appeared
20 before the place with 40,000 men, who encamped in two
21 divisions, to the east and west of the town. In the
22 month of December 1763, the Governor and Zyn Khan
23 moved out to risk an action with the Sikhs. The forces
24 joined battle at Peer Zyn Munayra, a village about seven
25 miles east of Sirhind, when fortune favored the Sikhs,
26 and the Moosulman leaders were slain. The town of
27 Sirhind was then carried, and most of the buildings
28 razed to the ground, the Sikh animosity against the
29 place being excited by the recollection, that the wife and
30 infant son of their saint GooROO Govind had there
31 been inhumanly put to death by Vuzeer Khan, the
32 governor for Aurungzeeb. Not a house was left standing,
33 and it is even to this day deemed a meritorious act by a