Kup-Rahira, site of the Vadda Ghallughara

Kup and Rahira (also spelt Rohira) are neighbouring villages about 12 km north of Malerkotla. They are where Ahmad Shah Durrani’s army caught the Sikh column, with its families, on the morning of 5 February 1762, the day the Panth calls the Vadda Ghallughara, the Great Holocaust. In the Panth’s count it follows the Chhota Ghallughara of 1746.

Key moments

• 5 February 1762, morning: the Afghan army catches the Sikhs encamped at Kup-Rahira. Zain Khan, faujdar of Sirhind, and Bhikhan Khan, chief of Malerkotla, are sent ahead to check them, and are repulsed.
• Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, commander-in-chief of the Dal Khalsa, decides to move the vahir, the baggage train with the families, in a cordon towards Barnala, 40 km to the south-west. He rejects Charhat Singh Sukerchakia’s plan for a square formation. The running fight follows a route of 45 to 50 km, through Kup, Rahira, Kutba, Bahmania, Gehal and Hathur.
• Early afternoon: both sides reach a pond, and Ahmad Shah does not pursue.
• May to August 1762: Zain Khan pays Rs 50,000 for peace, and the Sikhs raid the Lahore area, within three months of the killing.
• 29 November 2011: Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal inaugurates the Vadda Ghallughara Memorial at Rohira.

How many died. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism gives a range of 20,000 to 50,000 and calls the figures of the Muslim chronicler Tahmas Khan Miskin, 25,000, and Ratan Singh Bhangu, 30,000, the more credible. Wikipedia’s table runs from 5,000 to 50,000 across later historians, and a local gurdwara booklet says about 35,000. Jassa Singh received twenty-two wounds.

The memorial today. The memorial stands on 11 acres, with a 110-foot tower, an open-air theatre, an auditorium and an information centre. The Tribune reported in June 2025 that its Interpretation Centre was still unfinished, that it drew mostly local visitors, about 50 to 60 a day, and that a governing body headed by the Malerkotla Deputy Commissioner looks after it. Gurdwaras mark the route, among them Shahid Ganj at Rahira, Att Sahib at Kutba and Dhab Sahib at the pond.