Bhai Mehtab Singh (d. 1745), eighteenth century Sikh warrior and martyr, was born the son of Hara Singh, a Sikh of Bhangu clan of the village of Mirarikot, 8 km north of Amritsar. He grew up amidst the most ruthless persecution Sikhs suffered under the later Mughals, and like many another spirited youth joined one of the several small guerilla bands into which they had organized themselves after the capture and execution, in 1716, of Banda Singh Bahadur. Nadir Shah's invasion, while it violently shook the already crumbling edifice of the Mughal empire, so emboldened the Sikhs that they attacked and robbed even the invader's rear on his way back. Zakariya Khan, the governor of the Punjab from 1726 to 1745, further intensified his campaign against the Sikhs, forcing them to seek safety in hi