BHIKHAN SHAH OR SHAH BHIKH, PIR, a seventeenth century Sufi saint, was born the son of Sayyid Muhammad Yusaf of Siana Sayyidari, a village 5 km from Pehova, now in Kurukshetra district of Haryana. For a time, he lived at Ghuram in present day Patiala district of the Punjab and finally settled at Thaska, again in Kurukshetra district. He was tlie disciple of Abul Mu`ali Shah, a Sufi divine residing at Ambhita, near Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and soon became a pfr or saint of much repute and piety in his own right. According to tradition preserved in Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth, Pir Bhikhan Shah, as he learnt through intuition of the birth of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) at Patna, made obeisance that day to the east instead of to the west.
SAKHI SARWAR, lit. the Bountiful Master, also known by various other appellations such as Sultan (king), Lakhdata (bestower of millions), Lalanvala (master of rubies), Nigahia Pir (the saint of Nigaha) and Rohianvala (lord of the forests), was the founder of an obscurantist cult whose followers are known as Sultanias or Sarwarias. His real name was Sayyid Ahmad. He was the son of Sayyid Zain ulAbidm, an immigrant from Baghdad who had settled at Shahkot, in present day Jhang district of Pakistan, Punjab, and Ayesha, daughter of the village headman married to the Sayyid. Accounts ofAhmad`s life are based on legend and not many factual details are known about him.
ZAIN KHAN (d. 1764), an Afghan, was appointed governor of Sirhind in March 1761 by Ahmad Shah Durrani. Earlier he had acted as Faujdar of Char Mahal the four districts of Sialkot, Gujrat, Pasrur and Aurarigabad. This was from 1759 when Karim Dad Khan was appointed governor of the Punjab by the Afghan invader. For his relentless campaign against the Sikhs and for his part in die Vadda Ghallughara ( 5 February 1762), or Great Carnage, at the village of Kup Rahira near Malerkotia, Zain Khan had become a special target of their vengeance. Within four months of the Ghallughara they attacked Sirhind with a strong force, inflicting upon him a severe defeat and laying him under tribute.