After being blessed with this victory, the Nawaub marched on, and captured the town of Kirpa at the first assault; and, from the pomp and magnificence of his army, of victorious presage, the environs of that town became the envy of the starry heavens. The Nawaub here placed the captured Afghans in a tent near his own; the two brave young chiefs were, however, imprisoned in their own house.
The next day the Nawaub directed the arms of the Afghan prisoners should be taken from them; fearing that, as they were rash, foolish, men, they might attempt some act of violence or treachery. When, therefore, Abou Muhammad, the Mirdah or chief officer of the Peons* or messengers of the Presence, a man of great respectability, and an old and faithful servant, went to them to ask for their swords and shields, he at first desired to get possession of them by stratagem;* and accordingly he said to the Afghans, “Gentlemen, I beg to inform you, that the Nawaub is perfectly enchanted by the skill and excellence of your sword practice; he wishes therefore to be allowed to inspect your arms, and, for your honourable service will present each of you better arms, from his own armoury.” In answer to this the Afghans unanimously declared that, while the loan of their lives remained with them, their swords should never come into his hands. When the Mirdah returned to the Nawaub with this insolent answer of the Afghans, the Nawaub immediately ordered a number of matchlock men to proceed to terrify them with their matchlocks and bayonets, and take possession of their weapons.
When the musketeers went and stood before them, the Afghans saw that the issue of their affair depended on the point of the bayonet and the mouth of the musket, and four brothers of their number, the sons of Abdurrizak Khan, Dowlut Zai, whose names were Jubbar Khan, Suttar Khan, Ruhman Khan and Kadur Khan, all Chiefs among that tribe, careless of life, after repeating the Fatiheh,* madly drew their swords and sallied forth. Killing five or six matchlock men on their way, they took the path to the Nawaub’s tents. On their arrival there, however, the spear men and the sentinels of the guard killed three of these men at the door of the Nawaub’s tent; but the fourth or the remaining one rushed into the tent. Aware by some means or other of his approach, the Nawaub with his dagger* slit down the wall of the tent, and escaped to the Dewaun i Aum, or the tent of public audience, and the rash perfidious Afghan, seeing the tent empty, began to repeat the Lahowl,* to signify his astonishment and mortification, and rubbed the back of his sword on his foot. But, while he was doing this, an executioner stole behind him, and separated his head from his body.
From this circumstance, the Nawaub conceived a bad opinion of the whole of these men,— Truly,— “If one man of a tribe commit a fault,”— “neither the respectability of the little or great is spared,”*— and Hydur, in his anger, therefore gave orders to his hard-hearted executioners to cut off the hands and feet of the Afghan prisoners at the joints with axes and saws, and thereby gave a bitter potion, as an example, to the tongue and palate of the rest; and these men, with the blood streaming from their legs and arms, were carried through the streets and lanes of the town, and were then left outside the walls. Some of them, however, to save their lives, pretended to be Syuds* and Shaikhs, and thereby escaped punishment.
After this occurrence, the Nawaub sent a party of steady experienced infantry into the town, and despatched the Kuzzaks, or plundering horse, towards the fort of Sudhote, where the Chief of the Afghans, (Huleem Khan), had sought refuge. The horse, before mentioned, having marched by night to Sudhote, began to plunder, and destroy the country near the fort. In the morning, the Hakim or Chief, seeing troops upon troops of these bravoes plundering and setting fire to the houses, he sent out a man to enquire the reason. His messenger on his return, told him that the army of the Nawaub had defeated his troops, and that the hands and feet of the Afghans, in consequence of their violence, as has been before related, had been cut off with the hatchet and saw of anger and revenge. Also that the Nawaub had taken the city of Kirpa at the first assault, and that the horse near the fort were his light cavalry, sent forward to plunder. Huleem Khan, on hearing this, fell into deep fear; and, with the counsel and advice of certain of his short sighted Khans, proclaimed, that all his servants and the inhabitants of the town, with their women and families, property, money and jewels, should during the night retire to the hill country, near Chitul Droog; and they accordingly proceeded thither. It happened, however, that the keen-sighted Kuzzaks had some intimation of this movement, and that multitudes of men and women, with great quantities of heavy baggage, and articles of value, such as gold and jewels, were quitting the fort, and journeying towards the hilly country; and they immediately set out after them at speed, and, attacking them on the road, omitted no indignity or cruelty in plundering the night wanderers, and without compunction seized on their wealth, violated their women, and falling in with some Afghans, (who apparently had charge of these people) they put them to death and then returned.