Lahore: The 164th anniversary of the great martyr Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal of the War of Independence of 1857 against the British usurper rulers has been celebrated with full zeal and zest.
On September 21, Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal was martyred on the banks of the Ravi River while praying. Belonging to Jhamra village in Sandal Bar (Punjab), he first fought against Raja Ranjit Singh and his government along with his comrades other than Kharal tribe, Fatiana, Joiya, Kathia, Wattoo and some other tribal Mujahideen. When the British government demanded taxes from the locals and set up outposts in Sahiwal and Okara headed by General Berkeley for this purpose, Shaheed Kharal attacked them with the Mujahideen and killed the British soldiers who came to collect taxes near the Ravi River.
In June 1857, Berkeley came to Jhamra and asked Kharal for horses and young men with whom he could suppress the revolt, but Kharal refused. On his way back in anger, he arrested the resisting young Punjabis and put them in Gogira Jail. On July 26, 1857, Kharal along with his associates attacked Gogira Jail . A fierce battle took place between the Punjabis and the British and finally Kharal broke the jail and released his imprisoned comrades. Berkeley now started plotting to kill Kharal at the hands of Kharal. When Kharal and his Punjabi allies liberated Sahiwal and it became impossible for Berkeley to capture him, Kamal Kharal, a close associate of Kharal, and Nihan Singh Bedi, a Sikh comrade, were lured together for intelligence but Kharal was unaware of this betrayal. The two traitors told Berkeley about Kharal’s whereabouts and also told Kharal to cross the Ravi River at this place. He crossed the river before the troops arrived, but the time for his martyrdom came, and Berkelay suddenly attacked Kharl while while praying on September 21, 1857. It is said that the first bullet was fired by Bedi, the traitor who martyred Kharal along with his brother, nephew and other Mujahideen.
Rai Ahmad Kharal sent 21 British to hell with his own hands. Murad Fatyana, a brave comrade of Kharal, soon avenged Kharal’s death by cutting Berkeley’s neck. On Kharal’s 164th birthday, the nephew of the great poet Naz Khayalvi who wrote his poem “Tum ik Gorkha Dandha Ho” and the poet Shahid Khayalvi and his companions Yasir Arafat Muqdad Ahsan and Haider Ali Haider laid flowers at the shrine of Shaheed Kharal and offered Fateha.
