Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal

Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal was born in Jhamra into a landowning family of the Kharal{{Cite web|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/793732/kharal-and-berkley-ii|title=Kharal and Berkley II|date=22 April 2013}} tribe which was prominent in the Sandal Bar region of Punjab. Kharals had vied for dominance with Bar tribal groups such as the Kathia, Wattoo, Fatayana and others. Ahmed Khan Kharal was able to briefly maintain influence over all of Sandal Bar.{{Cite book |last=Saranga |first=Turab ul Hasan |title=Punjab and the War of Independence 1857-1858 from Collaboration to Resistance |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2020 |isbn=9780190701840 |edition=1st |location=Oxford, England |language=en}}

Leopold Oliver Fitzhardinge Berkeley, or better known as Lord Berkley, was the Assistant Commissioner of Gogera in 1857. He held a meeting with important personalities of Gogera including Ahmad Khan Kharal. Berkley demanded all the leaders to supply the British with men (soldiers) and horses to crush the ongoing revolt. To this, Ahmad Khan Kharal replied: "Kharals do not share women, horses and land with anyone" and left.{{Cite web |last=Miraj |first=Muhammad Hassan |date=2013-04-15 |title=Kharal and Berkley |url=https://www.dawn.com/2013/04/15/kharal-and-berkley/ |access-date=2022-09-24 |website=DAWN.COM |language=en}}

On July 8, the British arrested a large number of Joiya tribesmen, women and children after they refused to pay the heavy taxes (Lagan). When Ahmed Khan Kharal received this news, he planned to break into the Gogera jail and rescue the innocent people imprisoned there. With help of his Fatayana, Wattoo and Kathia allies Ahmad Khan Kharal attacked the Gogera Jail around 26 July. According to British records 17 prisoners were killed, 33 were injured and 18 fled.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LZ8IAAAAQAAJ |title=General Report on the Administration of the Punjab Territories, from 1856-57 to 1857-58 Inclusive: Together with a Brief Account of the Administration of the Delhi Territory, from the Re-occupation of Delhi Up to May 1858 |date=1854 |publisher=Printed at the Chronicle Press, by Mahomed Azeem |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Punjab |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1SQeAQAAIAAJ |title=Government Records: Mutiny records. Correspondence and reports |date=1911 |publisher=Punjab Government Press |language=en}} But native accounts disagree suggesting that 145 prisoners died and 100+ EIC troops were also killed.{{cite web |date=8 July 2019 |title=Tributes to A.D. Aijaz, the oral historian of Kharal's resistance - Newspaper |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1492795 |accessdate=2020-05-07 |website=DAWN.COM}} The British arrested Ahmad Khan Kharal but released him due to pressure from local tribes and insufficient evidence available to charge him. Ahmed Khan Kharal continued resisting against the British after being released.

In order to arrest Ahmad Khan Kharal, Berkley attacked Jhamra but was unsuccessful although he imprisoned 20 civilians including Ahmad Khan Kharal's youngest son Bala Khan Kharal. The British also took with them a large number of cattle. Ahmad Khan Kharal with the help of Kathia, Wattoo, Fatayana and Joiya tribesmen started a guerrilla campaign against the British. According to Punjab government records, the rebels numbered 20,000 to 30,000 men at their height. John Cave-Browne writes that these rebels took refuge in thick jungles and grass and attacked with groups of 3,000-5,000 guerrillas. The sound of drum beating was the sign that they would attack.{{Cite book |last=Cave-Browne |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZD4NAAAAYAAJ&q=the+Punjab+and+delhi+in+1857+book |title=The Punjab and Delhi in 1857: Being a Narrative of the Measures by which the Punjab was Saved and Delhi Recovered During the Indian Mutiny |date=1861 |publisher=William Blackwood and Sons |language=en}} The connection of Jhang to Lahore was completely cut. Ahmed Khan Kharal planned a major assault on Gogera with other tribal leaders in a secret meeting but the information was leaked by Sarfraz Kharal of Kamalia to the British. The British prepared themselves to face the upcoming assault and when the rebels attacked they were repulsed with heavy losses.

Ahmad Khan Kharal with his companions fled to the jungles of Gashkori and continued the struggle. The British received news about Ahmad Khan Kharal's presence in the jungles of Gashkori and a force under Captain Black was sent there. The detachment succeeded in killing Ahmad Khan Kharal while he was offering afternoon prayers. Many of his close companions such as his deputy Sarang Khan Kharal was also killed in this engagement.

Murad Fatayana, a trusted associate of Ahmed Khan Kharal, took revenge of Ahmad Khan's killing and killed Lord Berkley alongside 50 British and Indian troops in a successful attack. The rebellion continued until it ended in 1858 as local tribes lost to British EIC reinforcements.{{cite journal |author=Saeed Ahmed Butt |year=2015 |title=Rai Ahmad Khan Kharral (Myth or Reality) |url=http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/HistoryPStudies/PDF-FILES/13-Saeed_V28_no2.pdf |journal=Journal of the Punjab University Historical Society |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=173–191 |accessdate=2020-05-07}}

File:Ahmad Khan Kharral Tomb.jpg]]

Ahmad Khan Kharal’s head was decapitated and put on display at Gogera Jail.{{Cite book |last=Mirzā |first=Shafqat Tanvīr |url=http://archive.org/details/resistancethemes0000mirz |title=Resistance themes in Punjabi literature |date=1992 |publisher=Lahore, Pakistan : Sang-e-Meel Publications |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-969-35-0101-8 |pages=111–112}} A few days later, one of his supporters stole the head and buried it in his ancestral graveyard in Jhamra. The local dhola poems recited after his death describe Ahmad Khan's martyrdom as Britain lowering the head of Punjab:{{Cite book |last=Sargana |first=Turab ul Hassan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERW4zQEACAAJ |title=Punjab and the War of Independence 1857-1858 from Collaboration to Resistance |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-070184-0 |pages=136 |language=en}}

احمَد خان شہید ہویا تاں سِر پَنجاب دے نوُں جا گھَتیا اے ہَتھ

With Ahmad Khan's martyrdom, Britain has lowered the head of Punjab.

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