Page 32 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer

which were for the most part already under the control of British officers,
became formally a portion of the British Empire.
The events of 1857 mutiny did not have much bearing on the area and both
Khangarh and Layyah mostly remained tranquil. The following account of
the events of 1857 is taken from the Punjab Mutiny Report. Major Browne
observes on this district:
“The district of Khangarh entirely escaped any ill-effects beyond the
alarm felt by the European community at the proximity of the
mutinous regiments at Multan and the possibility of invasion of the
lower portion by bands of robbers from Bahawalpur.”
Precautions were, however, necessary. Mr. Henderson, the then Deputy
Commissioner, fortified the jail, the court-house and the chief and district
treasuries, armed all Europeans and vigilantly guarded all the ferries which
were not closed. He detached Lieutenant Ferris, Assistant Commissioner, to
the banks of the Chenab to establish a chain of posts along it. This object
was fully accomplished. The villagers themselves served so willingly that a
cordon of 104 posts, extending 26 miles, was soon established. At another
time a chain of mounted police was thrown across the district from the
Chenab to the Indus to cut off any stragglers of the 14th Native Infantry that
might come down from Jhelum. An intelligence department was also
organized between Khangarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan and Muzaffargarh.
As stated above, the District Layyah also remained very tranquil. Only one
or two slight punishments were inflicted for offences connected with the
mutiny. Much anxiety was caused at one time by the arrival of a wing of the
17th Irregular Cavalry under Captain Hockin, but it remained firm. When
the Kharral insurrection broke out in September, Captain Hockin marched
against the rebels, leaving at Layyah 40 of his men who had fallen under
suspicion. The day before he marched news reached Layyah that the whole
of the 9th Irregular Cavalry had mutinied at Mianwali. Captain Fendall says:
“I certainly at first thought it was a deep-laid scheme for raising the whole
country that the 9th Irregular Cavalry were to appear before Dera Ismail
Khan, be joined by the 39th Native Infantry, come on to Leiah, pick up the
wing of the 17th Light Cavalry, go towards Gugera, coalescing with the tribes
and march on to Multan (where there were two suspected regiments of Native
Infantry). It was feasible, and would have temporarily lost us the lower
Punjab.” But this dreaded junction did not take place. The news proved to
be an exaggeration. The mutineers of the 9th Irregular Cavalry, who, strange
to say, were all men of the cis-Sutlej states, were only 30 in number, and
were entirely destroyed in a desperate fight, in which Mr. Thomson, the Extra
Assistant of Layyah, was very dangerously wounded.
The British district of Khangarh contained the tehsils of Muzaffargarh and
Alipur, and the talukas of Maharaja and Ahmadpur, which are now in Jhang.
In 1849, at the first division of the province of Punjab for administrative
purposes by the British authorities, the town of Khangarh was selected as

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