Mirza Mughal - Death

Death

Following the failure of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the last Moghul Emperor, Bahadur Shah II, was captured by Major Hodson at his camp at Humayun’s Tomb, just outside Delhi. Mirza Mughal and two other Mughul princes were with the Emperor (another son, Mirza Khizr Sultan, and a grandson, Mirza Abu Bakr) and they refused to surrender. The next day, Hodson went back to the camp with one hundred horsemen and demanded the three princes' unconditional surrender. A crowd of thousands of rebels gathered, and Hodson ordered them to disarm, which they did. He sent the princes ahead with an escort of ten men, while with his remaining ninety men he collected the arms of the crowd.

On going after the princes, Hodson found the crowd was again pressing towards the escort. The princes were mounted on a bullock-cart and driven towards the city. As they approached the city gate, Hodson ordered the three princes to get off the cart and to strip off their upper garments. He then shot them dead, before stripping the princes of their signet rings, turquoise arm-bands and bejewelled swords. Their bodies were thrown in front of a kotwali, or police-station, and left there to be seen by all. The gate near which the executions were performed is called the Khooni Darwaza, or Bloody Gate.