Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal

Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal (Punjabi: رائے احمد خان کھرَل; 1803 - 21 September 1857),[1][2] also known as Amo Kharal, was a Punjabi freedom fighter and folk hero from British India, who fought against the East India Company in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.[3][4][5].He proved himself a great hero of Punjab,Pakistan by launching anti-imperialist struggle against British Empire. He along with Rai Sarang Kharal,Bahlol Fatyana,Murad fatyana and Sojha Bhadro are unforgettable Sardars in region of Okara,Faisalabad and Multan.

Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal
Born1803
Jhamra, Sikh Empire
(present-day Punjab, Pakistan)
Died21 September 1857(1857-09-21) (aged 53–54)
Gogera, Punjab, Company India
(present-day Punjab, Pakistan)
Cause of deathKilled in battle
Other namesAmo Kharal
Known forFreedom fighter

Early History

Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal was born into a rich landowning family of the Punjabi Rajput Kharal[6] clan in the Sandal Bar region of Punjab, in Chak 434 Gb Jhamra village 23 km from Tandlianwala Faisalabad District and 57 km from Faisalabad city.

He was a Punjabi Muslim landlord, who possessed a reasonable territory of land. Having the leadership of Kharal tribe with respectable status, this peace-loving Kharral chief was converted into a leader of freedom fighters. All this injustice was happened by the hands of the British at that time. His love for his mother-land resulted into differences with the British, which led towards the emergence of famous Gogera insurrection. A British compiler of the Montgomery Gazetteer says: “Ahmad was a man above the average – bold and crafty.”

Later on, when the rebellion broke out against the British East India Company, he also raised a force to fight against them.[7]

Death

For some months, Ahmad Khan Kharal kept up a successful guerilla campaign against the British East India Company. On 21 September 1857, Kharal went with a force to attack the Gogera Jail (now in Okara District) to release some of his arrested companions, but was ambushed by the assistant commissioner of Gogera, Leopold Oliver Fitzhardinge Berkeley,[8] and his muslim allies. Kharal and his assistant, Sarang, were both killed in action while fighting that force.[9]

See also

References
  1. "Ahmed Khan Kharal and the Raj". www.thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
  2. "Past in Perspective". The Nation. 2019-06-25. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
  3. "Ahmed Khan Kharal and the Raj". thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  4. "Kharal and Berkley II". DAWN.COM. 22 April 2013. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  5. "Past in Perspective". nation.com.pk. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  6. "Kharal and Berkley II". 22 April 2013.
  7. Saeed Ahmed Butt (2015). "Rai Ahmad Khan Kharral (Myth or Reality)" (PDF). Journal of the Punjab University Historical Society. 28 (2): 173–191. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  8. "Lionel Berkeley: Letters and papers". Archives Hub. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  9. "Tributes to A.D. Aijaz, the oral historian of Kharal's resistance - Newspaper". DAWN.COM. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 2020-05-07.


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