Massacres after the battle After the defeat the Marathas fled in all directions, and the Afghans, Mughals, Rohillas and Awadh troops fell upon them and were busy in plundering and slaying soldiers and civilians. Afghan officers who had lost their kin in battle were permitted to carry out massacres of Marathas the next day also, in Panipat and the surrounding area. They arranged victory mounds of severed heads outside their camps. According to the single best eyewitness chronicle – the bakhar by Shuja-ud-Daula's Diwan Casi Raja(Kashi Raja) – about 40,000 Maratha prisoners were slaughtered in cold blood the day after the battle. According to Hamilton, a reporter of the Bombay Gazette, about half a million Marathi people were present there in Panipat town and he gives a figure of 40,000 prisoners as executed by Afghans. Qutb Shah's son slaughtered 4,000 fugitives near Sonepat and Abdus Samad Khan's son killed 5,000 near Bahadurgad, to avenge their fathers deaths. Some 22,000 women and children were driven off as slaves.
Massacres after the battle After the defeat the Marathas fled in all directions, and the Afghans, Mughals, Rohillas and Awadh troops fell upon them and were busy in plundering and slaying soldiers and civilians. Afghan officers who had lost their kin in battle were permitted to carry out massacres of Marathas the next day also, in Panipat and the surrounding area. They arranged victory mounds of severed heads outside their camps. According to the single best eyewitness chronicle – the bakhar by Shuja-ud-Daula's Diwan Casi Raja(Kashi Raja) – about 40,000 Maratha prisoners were slaughtered in cold blood the day after the battle. According to Hamilton a reporter of the Bombay Gazette, about half a million Marathi people were present there in Panipat town and he gives a figure of 40,000 prisoners as executed by Afghans. Qutb Shah's son slaughtered 4,000 fugitives near Sonepat and Abdus Samad Khan's son killed 5,000 near Bahadurgad, to avenge their fathers deaths. Some 22,000 women and children were driven off as slaves.