Pervez Mehmood (a writer for Friday Times) is spewing the Sikh and Indian narrative on Afghans

Pervez Mehmood

Parvez Mahmood (a writer for Friday Times) believes that Adina Beg Arain (a Punjabi Muslim who was contemporary of Ahmad Shah Abdali) never collaborated with Afghans of Punjab because they were inherently deceitful and because they were plunderers. 

Link to the article

Adina Beg did collaborate with Indo-Afghans of Punjab once he became the governor of Punjab. According to Ibrat-nama of Ali-ud-Din (written in 1850), Adina Beg persuaded the Afghans of Kasur, Daulpur, Jalandhar and Alwalpur to join him in eradicating Sikh marauders in 1758. 1

Pervez Mehmood is simply repeating Sikh and Indian narrative in his article. There is not a single primary account which suggests that Adina Beg was hostile to Afghans and Indo-Afghans because of their supposed deceitful nature or because they plundered Punjab. Indo-Afghans of Punjab were the most potent force against Sikh marauders in 18th century. They had long history of assisting their Mughal overlords in rooting out the Sikh marauders, protecting the lives of Muslims of Punjab and restoring peace to Punjab. 

Indo-Afghans of Punjab were not forces of disruption so Adina Beg could not collaborate with them for his schemes of disrupting peace of Punjab (to undermine Mughal and Afghan authority). For disrupting law and order of Punjab, he used Sikhs. Once Adina became governor of Punjab, he no longer had any need for disruptive and marauding forces like Sikhs and called upon the Indo-Afghans of Punjab as well as other Muslim and Hindu zamindars of Punjab to restore peace. Deceit and plunder did not bother Adina Beg. He himself employed deceit on number of occasions and collaborated with jathas of Sikhs, who were the greatest plunderers of all. He also summoned Marathas to Punjab and gave them and Sikhs a free hand to plunder Sirhind. 2

Adina Beg refused the summon from the court of Timur Khan Durrani's court at Lahore because (1) earlier he had agreed to govern Jalandhar Doab on behalf of Afghans on the condition that he would not be required to attend the court (2) because he was up to no good and feared that Jahan Khan (the regent of Prince Timur) had figured him out. Adina Beg had ambition to become governor of Punjab himself so he undermined Afghan rule of Punjab simply for that reason, just like previously he had undermined Mughal rule over Punjab. It had nothing to do with the supposed deceitful nature of Afghans. 

 For more details read my this blog-post on Adina Beg