Battle of Peshawar (1758)
The Battle of Peshawar took place in on 8 May 1758 between Maratha Empire and the Durrani Empire. The Marathas were victorious in the battle and Peshawar was captured. Before that, the fort of Peshawar was being guarded by Durrani troops under Timur Shah Durrani and Jahan Khan. After being defeated by the army of Marathas supported by Sikhs, they managed to escape the fort and fled to Afghanistan. The victory in this battle is considered a great success for Marathas as now their rule had extended to the border of Afghanistan, located 2000 km far from their capital Pune.
Aftermath
In Punjab, North-West Frontier Province and Kashmir, the Marathas were now major players. Malhar Rao Holkar, the commander-in-chief of Maratha forces remained in Peshawar for three months after which he retired to Pune giving the control to Tukoji Rao Holkar with 10,000 Maratha troops to guard the fort of Peshawar from Afghans. However, they were not enough to tackle the larger forces of Durrani who re-captured the city in 1759.
References
- http://books.google.co.in/books?id=jBBYD2J2oE4C&pg=PA43&dq=marathas+peshawar&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9V0IT5ibFMLorQes6s3ZDw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=marathas%20peshawar&f=false
- Duff, James Grant. A history of the Mahrattas, Volume 2
- http://books.google.co.in/books?id=zp0FbTniNaYC&pg=PA103&dq=maratha+plunder+rohilkhand&hl=en&ei=kh0tTuaaEIjsrQeo3qGyDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=maratha%20plunder%20rohilkhand&f=false