Raja Ali Mardan Khan was a wrestler and weightlifter in Jammu and Kashmir. He was famous for his incredible physical strength and in his time was reputed to be the strongest man in the whole of Jammu and Kashmir. He took part in and won many weightlifting and wrestling competitions. In one particular weightlifting competition the Dogras could find no match for Ali Mardan and so resorted to calling in a famous Sikh strongman from the Punjab. Knowing that their man was still likely to lose they added extra bajri (shingles) to the weights of Ali Mardan. Despite this he succeeded in lifting the weight and winning the competition much to the amazement of the Dogras as they had never before seen such physical strength.
Ali Mardan once tore the ears off a pair of bandits with his bare hands. Having subdued them and torn off an ear from each of them he paid them a sum of money as compensation. For many years later these bandits worked as porters in the markets of Raja Bazar in Rawalpindi and when people asked what had become of their ears they would relate their encounter with Ali Mardan of Bratla.
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