Page 23 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer

were able to conquer the city of Multan with relatively less resistance, yet the
siege of the fort lasted for 84 days. On June 2, 1818 a small contingent of
Sikhs succeeded in making their way into the fort. Nawab Muzaffar Khan,
along with a few of his faithful soldiers, checked their advance. The fight went
on from morning till afternoon. It was more like a hand-to-hand fight in
which both sides used daggers, swords and guns. Nawab gave a heroic fight
in which he was accompanied by his sons, relatives, loyal servants and a
handful of Afghans. Finally, a bullet from a Sikh soldier gave him the honour
of martyrdom. His five sons kept fighting and sacrificed their lives one after
another. Not only this but his daughter too followed his father’s footsteps and
laid her life before the fort finally fell to the Sikhs.
Muzaffar Khan lived the life of a soldier and died as a martyr. All throughout
his tenure, he remained busy in the defense of his dominion against the
Sikhs. With the demise of Muzaffar Khan, the dynasty of Sadozais also came
to an end in Multan. The Sikhs now became the masters of Multan till the
time it was annexed by the East India Company in 1849.
THE FOURTH GOVERNMENT – THE THAL NAWABS
The fourth Government comprised what is now, to a great extent, the Tehsil
Kot Addu, and parts of the District Layyah. It continued to form part of the
Mughal Empire until the invasion of Nadir Shah in 1738 when the area was
plundered ruthlessly. In 1739, the area west of the Indus was surrendered
by the Emperor of Delhi to Nadir Shah, and passed after his death to Ahmad
Shah Abdali. The armies of Ahmad Shah marched repeatedly through the
district, the cis-Indus portion of which was, with the rest of the Punjab,
incorporated in 1756 in the Durrani kingdom. During the greater portion of
the reign of Ahmad Shah, no regular governors were appointed by the Kabul
Government. The country was divided between the Hot and Jaskani chiefs
and a number of nearly independent border tribes. Occasionally one of the
king's sardars marched through the country with an army, collecting in an
irregular way, and often by force, the revenue that might have been assessed
without any uniform basis; but little or no attention was paid to the internal
administration of the area until quite the close of the reign of Ahmad Shah.
Two or three years before his death, Ahmad Shah deposed Nusrat Khan, the
last of the Hot rulers of Dera Ismail Khan; and after him, Dera Ismail Khan
was governed by Qamar-ud-Din Khan and other governors appointed direct
from Kabul. Some ten years later, the descendants of Mehmood Khan Gujjar,
who had succeeded the Miranis in the government of Dera Ghazi Khan, were
similarly displaced; and in 1786 the old Jaskani family of Layyah was driven
out by Abdul Nabi Serai, to whom their territories had been granted by the
king in jagir. Towards the end of the century, the whole of the present district
on both sides of the river was consolidated into a single government, under
Nawab Muhammad Khan Sadozai.
Before, however, proceeding further it would be necessary to enter into some
detail as to the history of the country under the old Baloch families.

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