Page 30 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer

fortified by a mud wall and having a citadel of brick but protected more by
its position in the midst of a desert, was now the only stronghold remaining,
and a division was advanced for its investment on the 18th November. Sardar
Khan Badozai, a bold, impetuous man, recommended Hafiz Ahmad Khan to
march out at once and attack the Sikhs. "To fight in the plain," he is quoted
to have said, “is the business of a lion, to hide in a hole that of a fox." Hafiz
Ahmad Khan, however, was not to be persuaded, and preferred to stand a
siege. The Sikhs now set baildars to dig wells for the use of the troops, and
in the meantime, water had to be brought on camels and bullocks from
Maujgarh. The wells were ready by the 25th November, and Ranjit Singh then
moved to Mankera with his main force; and on the 26th November, the
investment was completed. The bombardment of the place was continued for
ten days after this, but not without loss to the besiegers. At last, one of the
minarets of the fort mosque got damaged by the Sikh fire; Hafiz Ahmad Khan,
looking on this as an unlucky omen and thinking that enough had been done
for honour, proposed terms and agreed to surrender the fort on condition of
being allowed to march out with his arms and property, and to retain the
town and province of Dera Ismail Khan, with a suitable jagir. Ranjit Singh
granted the terms, and the place was surrendered accordingly. The Nawab
was treated with great civility and was sent with an escort to Dera Ismail
Khan. Ranjit Singh now annexed the cis-Indus territory. It must not be
imagined that under the Sikhs the whole cis-Indus territory formed one
compact government. A great portion of it was held in jagir, each jagirdar
possessing judicial and executive authority in the limits of his jagir, and
being quite independent of the kardar to whom the khalsa portion of the
district happened to be leased. These jagirdars were almost invariably
nonresidents, and put in agents, known as hakims, to manage their estates.
These hakims were more or less in the habit of raiding on one another and
lifting cattle. Thus, the entire territory until the time of Diwan Sawan Mal
was generally in a disturbed state. These jagirs were mostly in the Thal. The
whole of the cis-Indus jagirs granted by the Sikh Government, with the
exception of one or two small villages, were resumed during the British era.

The history of the four Governments has now been brought to a point where
they begin to merge under one head. The process was completed between
1790 and 1821. Bahawal Khan II had the territory lying open to him by
shifting of the Indus to the west, and having just seized those talukas which
now form the Alipur Tehsil. In the part of the district which had been ruled
from Dera Ghazi Khan there prevailed an anarchy, which followed the rule of
Mehmood Khan Gujjar. Between 1790 and the end of the century, Bahawal
Khan II took possession of the talukas of Arain, Kinjhar, Khor, Mahra, Seri
and Trund, which now form the southern and western parts of Muzaffargarh.
This portion, along with Alipur, was called Kachi Janubi, opposed to the
Kachi Shumali of the Thal nawabs. He and his successor, Sadiq Khan II, and
Bahawal Khan III brought the country under a settled government,
encouraged cultivation and excavated canals. Bahawal Khan III was the
governor that later helped Edwardes at the siege of Multan. In 1818, the

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