In the beginning of 1785, a large horde of the punjabis numbering about 30,000 under the leadership of Baghel Singh Dhaliwal and Jassa Singh Ramgarhia swept over the upper Ganga Doab. They crossed the Ganga and entered Rohilkhand which though a part of Oudh was under the British protection. On 13 January, 1785, the two Sayyid villages of Barsi and Mahmudpur were razed to the ground. Then they decided to plunder Moradabad on 14 January. It was Friday, when all the Muslims would gather in large numbers. It was reported that the richest town in the area was Chandausi, 44 kms from Moradabad. It was a great trade mart where more than 2,000 bankers and merchants carried on business transactions for cores of rupees. The Sikhs turned towards it. Chandausi was thoroughly squeezed for two days on 14 and 15 January, and booty worth nearly a crore of rupees was acquired. George Forster, an eye-witness recorded :
“The Sicque forces assembled again in the beginning of the year 1785, when they entered the province of Rohilcund, and having laid it waste for the space of one hundred miles they returned unmolested.” Hamiltonwrote : “This predatory incursion gave the coup-de-grace to the trade of Rohilcund, as thenceforward no man would venture his property in a country equally destitute of protection, from arbitrary exactions with in and plundering adventurers from without.
References :-
- History of Sikhs -Vol. IV ,The Sikh Commonwealth or Rise and Fall of Sikh Misls By Hari ram gupta.