The Battle of Kup was fought on 5 February 1762, between the
Afghan forces of
Ahmad Shah Durrani and the
Sikhs, under the command of
Jassa Singh Ahluwalia
Sultan-ul-Qaum Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia (3 May 1718 – 23 October 1783) was a Sikh leader during the period of the Sikh Confederacy, being the Supreme Leader of the Dal Khalsa. He was also Misldar of the Ahluwalia Misl. This period ...
and
Charat Singh
Sardar Charat Singh (1721–1770 or 1733—1774), also romanised as Charhat Singh, was the father of Mahan Singh, and the grandfather of Ranjit Singh. He distinguished himself at an early age in campaigns against Ahmad Shah Abdali and along w ...
.
Ahmad Shah Durrani with around 40,000 Soldiers reached
Malerkotla
Malerkotla is a city and district headquarters of Malerkotla district in the Indian state of Punjab. It was the seat of the eponymous princely state during the British Raj. The state acceded to the union of India in 1947 and was merged with ...
, west of
Sirhind
Sirhind-Fategarh is a town and a municipal council in the Fatehgarh Sahib district in the Indian state of Punjab.
Demographics
In the 2011 census Sirhind-Fatehgarh had a population of 60852. Males constituted 54% of the population and fema ...
, where nearly 30,000 Sikh men, women, children and elderly were encamped.
With surprise attack, the Sikhs threw a human shield around civilians as protection and fought the battle killing several thousand Afghans. However, Abdali was able to break the ring and carried out a full scale massacre of the Sikh civilians.
Ahmad Shah's forces killed several thousand Sikhs, and the surviving Sikhs fled to
Barnala. As many as 10,000 to 20,000 Sikh men, women, elderly and children were killed in what is known as the second Sikh holocaust (
Vadda Ghalughara
Vadda Ghalughara ( pa, ਵੱਡਾ ਘੱਲੂਘਾਰਾ, translit=ʋəɖɖɑ kə̀lːuɡɑ̀ɾɑ, lit=Greater Massacre) was the mass murder of unarmed Sikhs by the Afghan forces of the Durrani Empire during the years of Afghan influence in ...
).
References
Kup
1762 in India
Kup
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