Sikh and Maratha capture of Lahore
A brief alliance expelled the Afghans from Lahore and Attock. Jassa Singh Ahluwalia is said to have minted coins in Lahore around this time.
In 1758 Adina Beg, the Mughal faujdar of Jalandhar, invited the Marathas, who were then expanding across north India, to drive the Afghans out of the Punjab. He joined forces with them and with the Sikh misls.
In April 1758 the allied army under the Maratha general Raghunath Rao advanced on Lahore. Timur Shah and Jahan Khan, the Afghan rulers, fled towards Afghanistan, abandoning Lahore and their heavy guns. The Marathas pressed on to Attock and Peshawar. Sikh tradition says Jassa Singh Ahluwalia struck coins at Lahore and that captured Afghans were made to clean the sacred pool at Amritsar.
The Marathas soon left, leaving Adina Beg as governor; he died in September. The alliance was brief, but it set the stage for the great clash at Panipat.
Same era
Misls, Mughals and Afghans, 1709 – 1799
Banda Singh's first great strike, on a wealthy town that was home to the executioners of Guru Tegh Bahadur and the younger Sahibzade.
Banda Singh avenged Pir Budhu Shah, who had been killed by Sadhaura's governor for helping Guru Gobind Singh.
The peasant army of Banda Singh routed the Sirhind army and killed Wazir Khan, the man who had executed the Guru's younger sons. Sirhind fell two days later.
The emperor himself marched against the Sikh capital. A Sikh named Gulab Singh put on Banda Singh's clothes and was captured in his place while Banda slipped away.
Banda Singh and his followers held out in a walled compound for eight months, eating grass and bark, before surrendering. They were marched to Delhi and executed.
Nadir Shah crushed the Mughal army in a few hours, then sacked Delhi and carried off the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor.
Chhota GhallugharaMay – June 1746 · About 7,000 Sikhs killed and 3,000 executed (traditional figures)The 'Lesser Holocaust'. To avenge his brother's death, Lakhpat Rai hunted down Sikhs in the Kahnuwan swamps. Thousands were killed and captives were beheaded in Lahore.
The only time Abdali was beaten in a pitched battle in India. Sikh bands attacked his retreating columns.