Battle of Nowshera
A hard battle on the Kabul river that opened the Peshawar valley. The Nihang leader Akali Phula Singh fell leading the charge.
In 1823 Muhammad Azim Khan, the Barakzai ruler of Kabul, came down the Khyber to drive the Sikhs out of the Peshawar valley, calling on the Yusufzai and Khattak tribes to fight a holy war.
On 14 March 1823 Ranjit Singh's army met the Afghans and some thirty thousand tribesmen at Nowshera, on the Kabul river. The tribesmen held a hill, Pir Sabak, and fought with great courage. Akali Phula Singh, leading the Nihangs, charged on foot when his horse was shot and was killed in the attack; Hari Singh Nalwa and the Maharaja himself led the decisive assault.
The Afghan army, cut off by the river, failed to join the battle, and Azim Khan retreated; he died soon after. The Peshawar valley became tributary to Lahore, and in 1834 was annexed.
Same era
Campaigns of the Kingdom of Lahore, 1799 – 1842
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