ALI SINGH

ALI SINGH (d. 1716), a native of the village of Salaudi, near Sirhind, was in the service of Wazir Khan, the Mughal faujdar of Sirhind. According to Ratan Singh Bharigu, Prachin Panth Prakash, Wazir Khan, on learning of Banda Singh\’s advance from the South towards the Punjab under the orders of Guru Gobind Singh, called Ali Singh to his presence and taunted him with the remark that another Guru of theirs had appeared and that he should join him and bring him to Sirhind to be despatched after the previous Guru\’s sons.

Ali Sinjgh took his comment as an insult. Wazir Khan put him into prison from where he escaped and joined Banda Singh\’s ranks. Ali Singh took part in battles fought at Samana and Sadhaura. In the battle of Sirhind fought on 12 May 1710 at the nearby village of Chappar Chiri, he was one of the commanders of the Malva Sikhs. After the sack of Sirhind, he was appointed deputy governor of the town under Baj Singh. Ali Singh was captured in Lohgarh in 1710, while defending the fortress against the Mughal onslaught and after several years of imprisonment, was put to death in Delhi in June 1716 with Banda Singh Bahadur and his men seized in Gurdas Nangal.

References :

1. Bhangu, Ratan Singh, Prachin Panth Prakash [Reprint]. Amritsar, 1962
2. Ganda Singh, Banda Singh Bahadur. Amritsar, 1964 G.S.D.