14th September 1857, as described in Dastan e Ghadar by Zahir Dehlvi:
“When I reached the bazaar via the Jama Masjid, I was presented with a strange sight. Corpses were piled like logs. This was the same place where the dervish had made the prophecy to me four months before the ghadar, saying there would be bloodshed at this spot.
I went ahead and saw more dead bodies. When I asked the people of the bazaar how this had happened, they said, ‘One party of the British army reached the steps of the Jama Masjid, and some people were looting the houses of the common folks. The British soldiers wanted to enter the Masjid. The Muslims gathered inside saw this and feared that they would now kill inside God’s house. They thought it would be better to go down and fight the soldiers. The Muslims came out of the Masjid Darwaza and down the steps. The British forces aimed their guns at them. The ones who survived kept moving forward and a terrible fight ensued.
‘A huge uproar arose in the city. People ran out of their houses with whatever they could lay their hands on—wooden sticks, rods from their beds, swords and so on. Some of the British party were killed—they are the ones whose bodies are lying here. The rest ran off to join their army.’
I went via the Dariba Kalan through the Khooni Darwaza to the front of the kotwali. I saw dead bodies piled up, lining the street from the Jama Masjid to the kotwali. There were many corpses at the point where I had been fired at in the morning. I saw a metal bag filled with gunpowder in front of the kotwali hauz.”
And ends with
“By evening, the rioters had spread all over the city, all the way to Hamid Ali Khan’s kothi. The British forces had set up cannons near the kothi, and this prevented them from moving further, since they didn’t even have a gun to protect themselves. The chaos lasted all evening, after which the tired people came back to their houses.
At midnight, the British soldiers started the slaughter. They entered houses and began killing those sleeping inside, climbing on to the roofs to get at those sleeping there too.
In the morning, people living near and in Kashmiri Darwaza, Badar-Roo Darwaza and Kabuli Darwaza, as well as those in the Subhan Phatak, started running towards our side of the city.”
