Persecution Under Ranjit Singh:— The state of Kashmir was conquered by the Mughals between 1586—1588, and who's rule was popular.[1] Akbar the Great visited the state on three occasions (1588, 1592, and 1597)[1] and even his son Jahangir, and later still Shah Jahan, would also honour this new found tradition.

In 1599 during the construction of the Nagar Fort, Akbar even refused to use forced labour, and insisted on paying his workers a fair wage from his treasury.[1]

However in 1820 the demographically Muslim Kashmir state was occupied by the tyrant, and Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh (1780—1839), under who's regime non-Sikhs were widely persecuted; eating beef was banned and the repair of non-Sikh religious buildings was forbidden.[1]

The Sikhs later lost Kashmir in 1846; a mere twenty-six years after their invasion.[1] Pakistani historian Istiaq Ahmed once erroneously claimed that Singh "provided the most tolerant and benevolent rule" in Kashmir.[2] This has been contradicted by evidence discovered from other historians such as Barbara Brower and Barbara Rose Johnston.[3]

Sikhs for example were the first "bigoted rulers" who introduced forced labour into Kashmir, who also banned "muezzins call to prayer, closing many mosques, making cow slaughter punishable by death" and "nearly" destroyed "the Shah-i-Hamdan mosque".[3] Singh also "razed mosques and built Gurdwaras in their place" and buried the Quran in their doorways.[4]

Prior to Singh's persecution, independent Sikh bands, known as "misals", terrorized Muslims in the Punjab, who had "developed a number of institutions enabling them to wage a dispersed and yet united war" between 1761—1772.[5]