Zakariya Khan

Zakariya Khan was the Mughal governor of Lahore from 1726 until his death in 1745, the governor under whom Sikhs were hunted for bounty and executed in public at Lahore. He succeeded his father, Abd us-Samad Khan, at Lahore after governing Jammu from 1713 to 1720 and Kashmir from 1720 to 1726.

The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism records that he took part in the operations against Banda Singh Bahadur and, after Banda Singh and his companions were captured at Gurdas Nangal in December 1715, escorted them to Delhi.

Key moments

• 1726: he becomes governor of Lahore. Sikh bands keep raiding government caravans and treasuries.
• 1733: he lifts the restrictions on the Sikhs and, through his envoy Subeg Singh, offers them the title of Nawab and a jagir of several parganas worth about a lakh of rupees in revenue. The Sikhs gather at Amritsar for Baisakhi to hear the offer.
• 1735: before the harvest his forces occupy the jagir and drive the Sikhs towards Malwa. He then leads a campaign himself and blows up the fort at Gallewal.
• Rewards and penalties: a graded scale of rewards is laid down, including ten rupees for information about where a Sikh was and fifty rupees for a Sikh scalp, and sheltering a Sikh becomes a capital offence.
• 1737: Bhai Mani Singh asks leave to hold Diwali at Amritsar and is allowed on payment of a tax of 5,000 rupees (10,000 according to Ratan Singh Bhangu). The Encyclopaedia says the leave was a ruse, with a force under Diwan Lakhpat Rai sent against those who gathered. Mani Singh told the Sikhs not to assemble, so no tax was collected, and he was tried for non-payment. Offered Islam or death, he chose death.
• Public executions: the Encyclopaedia says prominent Sikhs, Bhai Mani Singh and Bhai Taru Singh among them, were executed in public at the Nakhas, the horse-market of Lahore, after the severest torments. Sikhs later renamed the place Shahidganj.
• 1 July 1745: he dies at Lahore.

How his end is remembered. The Encyclopaedia says only that he died at Lahore a dispirited man, leaving his sons and successors chaos and confusion, and that he never achieved his aim of crushing the Sikhs. Sikh tradition, as set down by the historian Ratan Singh Bhangu, ties his death to Bhai Taru Singh, who was scalped for refusing to give up his hair: Taru Singh is said to have cursed him, and Khan's death is said to have followed.

What he is remembered for. In Sikh history Zakariya Khan is the governor who put a price on Sikh heads, who turned an offer of a nawabship into a campaign, and under whom the shahidi of Bhai Mani Singh and Bhai Taru Singh took place at Lahore.