In 1836 Hari Singh Nalwa built a fort at Jamrud, at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, to hold the frontier against the Afghans.
In April 1837, while the Sikh army was away at Lahore for the wedding of Prince Nau Nihal Singh, Dost Mohammad Khan's sons, with some twenty thousand men, attacked Jamrud, which was held by a small garrison under Mahan Singh Mirpuri. Hari Singh Nalwa, ill at Peshawar, rode to its relief. On 30 April he drove the Afghans back, but was mortally wounded.
He ordered that his death be kept secret. Mahan Singh hid the body and held the fort until the relief army arrived from Lahore, and the Afghans withdrew. The Sikhs held the Khyber, but they had lost the greatest general of the frontier.
Same era
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