Salute to the brave soldiers of this Saragarhi battle that took place today! A heroic tribute to him for his indomitable courage.
Saragarhi battle*
The battle of Saragarhi is counted among the 5 great wars of the world. This war was fought on *12 September 1897* between the British Indian Army (who were Sikhs) and the Afghan Orakzai tribes in Tirah (now Pakistan). In this war, only 21 Sikh soldiers faced 10,000 Afghan warriors. This unusual war was led by British Indian Army Havildar Ishar Singh.
Historians say that the British wanted to occupy Afghanistan. Therefore, by the year 1897, the British had also started attacking Afghanistan. Two forts occupied by the British Army on the Afghanistan border were Gulistan Fort and Lockhart Fort. The Afghans of the Orakzai tribe wanted to capture the forts of Gulistan and Lokhart. There used to be a post by the name of Saragarhi near both these forts. This post was a means of communication between the two forts. The responsibility of security of this post was with the 36th Sikh Regiment.
According to the facts recorded in history, about 10,000 Afghan Pashtuns started attacking Saragarhi Post at 9 am on 12 September 1897. Seeing such a large number of enemies coming towards him, the leader of the soldiers, Havildar Ishar Singh, ordered Signal Man Gurmukh Singh to immediately inform the British officers posted at nearby Fort Lockhart about the situation and seek help. After receiving the signal, Colonel Houghton said that he had to hold the position and could not send help immediately. After receiving this information, Ishar Singh decided that he would not leave this post till his death. Along with Ishar Singh, his soldiers also gave in and decided to fight till their last breath.
All the Sikh soldiers stood on the upper part of the fort with their guns. The first fire of the Aurakzais came exactly at 9 o’clock. In the much-discussed book ‘The Iconic Battle of Saragarhi’, Brigadier Kanwaljit Singh has written that Havildar Isher Singh ordered his soldiers not to fire and to allow the Pathans to come forward and fire on them only when they were within 1000 yards. That means come within their firing range. The battle of Saragarhi started with the first shot being fired. Amidst the indiscriminate firing, the Afghan warriors understood that this war was not going to be easy, so during the war many times the Afghan commanders tempted the Sikh soldiers to surrender, but no soldier was ready for it.
To face the Afghans in this battle, the Sikh soldiers had single shot *’Martin Henry 303’* rifles, which could fire 10 rounds in 1 minute. Whereas the Afghans had rifles like Geisel and Lee Medford, which were many times better. In the first hour of the battle, 60 Pathan soldiers were killed, while on the Sikh side, Sepoy Bhagwan Singh was killed and Naik Lal Singh was badly injured. Seeing no success in the battle, the Afghans started breaking the doors and walls of the fort. After which they enter the fort and suddenly the gunfight turns into a hand-to-hand fight and sword fight, in which all the soldiers are martyred.
In this war, where 20 Sikh soldiers directly participated in this battle with the Afghans, 1 Sikh Gurmukh Singh was sending all the information of the war to Colonel Haughton through telegram, when all the 20 Sikh soldiers were martyred, the last defender Gurmukh Singh took position with his rifle where the soldiers had sleeping rooms. Historian Amarinder Singh has written in his book that Gurmukh killed at least twenty Pathans while firing alone. Due to which the angry Pathans set fire to the entire fort to end the fight. Historians have different claims regarding the number of Afghans killed in this war.
Although it is believed that this unequal battle lasted for about 7 hours, in which 22 people including 21 Sikhs and one civilian Dad were killed from the Sikh side and 300 to 600 people from the Pathan side.* Only after two days of this battle. The additional army returned Saragarhi back to the Indian British Army.
All the 21 Sikhs who proved their bravery and bravery in this war were posthumously given the highest award of bravery *Indian Order of Merit* by the British Empire, which was the biggest gallantry medal received by Indians till that time, it was awarded to the then Victoria Cross and was equivalent to today’s Param Vir Chakra. Till then the Victoria Cross could be awarded only to British soldiers, and that too if they survived. Sikh Regiment in India has declared this day as “Regimental Battle Honors Day”.
Most of these 21 brave soldiers of Saragarhi were not soldiers, but there were also some cooks and some signalmen among them. Their names *Havaldar Ishar Singh, Gurmukh Singh, Chanda Singh, Lal Singh, Jeevan Singh, Buta Singh, Jeevan Singh, Nand Singh, Ram Singh, Bhagwan Singh, Bhola Singh, Daya Singh, Narayan Singh, Sahib Singh, Hira Singh, Sundar Singh, Uttar Singh, Karmukh Singh, Gurmukh Singh, Bhagwan Singh, Ram Singh.*
_*Salute to the brave soldiers of this Saragarhi battle that took place today! A heroic tribute to him for his indomitable courage!!*_
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