On 10th  May 1857, the upsurge started from the Meerut cantonment and since then Bihar was on the verge of similar insurrection. On 12 June 1857, the Rebellion started from Rohini (Deoghar, now in Jharkhand), therefore the headquarters of  the regiment was shifted from there to Bhagalpur but here also another rebellion began in August 1857. The fearful  European planters had started demanding protection from the district administration. Wahabi leaders began to be arrested. It may be noted here that, in Bihar, besides the Sadiqpur family of so called Wahabis¹² , two more groups were active against the British. One was called the ‘Lucknow Group’ consisting of the people like Peer Ali, Yusuf Ali, Imamuddin and Masihuzzaman and the other was called the ‘Delhi Group’, consisting  of the people like Ali Karim (zamindar of Dumri, Gaya) and Waris Ali. It was this ‘Delhi Group’, which was alleged to have planned to induce the Danapur sepoys with money and other incentives to rebel against the British. The two groups combined and planned to start an uprising on Friday, 3rd  July 1857. Ali Karim had to be elected as the ruler of the province. The raja of Bettiah was also suspected to have been involved in the plot. In Patna,  the  Commissioner,  William  Tayler   invited  some  Muslim  notables  of  Patna  on  dinner  and  then treacherously arrested them on 19th  June 1857. They included Molvi Md Husain, Molvi Ahmadullah and Molvi Waizul Haq. Next day all Muslims were ordered to submit their weapons in the thanas. Merely on doubts, quite a large number of Muslims were arrested in the town of Muzaffarpur and in the villages like Singhia and Lalganj¹³ . On 23rd   June 1857, Waris Ali, the Police Jamadar of Muzaffarpur, was arrested  from Baruraj police chowki, where he was posted¹⁴ , ‘by Mr Robertson, the Assistant Magistrate and some indigo  planters, with his horse saddled, his goods packed and in the act of writing to tell Ali Karim that he had resolved to join him at once’. ‘He was a man who had been for years in the district, and knew well what he was about, himself of high family, as is said, with the Royal Family of Delhi, and possessed of considerable property’. The Jamadar was sent to Major Holmes,  at Sugauli, for being hanged but the latter sent him to Danapur to take his trial in the court of the Commissioner. Some accounts say, he was tried by the Commissioner, Willaim Tayler, and on 6th July 1857, he was declared guilty of possessing some letters which were considered to be treasonable correspondences with one Ali Karim (the zamindar of Dumri, Gaya) and, therefore he was sentenced to death. One of the letters seized from Waris Ali, informs William Tayler, expressed resentment against the wealth amassed by the European planters. The same day, he was hanged till death¹⁵ . William Tayler, the Commissioner, says, “The Najeeb was hanged on

Footnotes:
11 Shaad Azimabadi, Peer Ali: Ek Novel, compiled by Naqi Ahmad Irshad, KBL, Patna, 1993. This novel has been produced by taking contents from those two books.
12 Cited by Ashfaq Arfi, op.cit, p. 204. The membership increased to 500 in 1872, (Garcien de Tassey, op.cit, p. 168). For details see Qeyamuddin Ahmad, Wahabi Movement in India, OUP, Delhi, 1994 (Reprint). In Tirhut, the Wahabis remained active till 1860s (1865-71) under the leadership of Haji Mubarak Ali, see Taqi Raheem, Tehreek-e-Azadi Mein Bihar ke  Musalmanon Ka Hissa, KBL, Patna, 1998, p. 72..
13  Besides Patna, Tirhut was another major centre of the ‘Wahabis’. After large scale suppression of the ‘Wahabi’ leaders of Patna like Wilayat Ali and Enayat Ali, the leadership shifted to one Haji Mubarak Ali of Tirhut during 1865-71. See Taqi Raheem, Tehreek-e-Azadi Mein Bihar Ke musalmanon Ka Hissa, KBL, Patna, 1998, p. 72.
14 Vijay Kumar Thakur, “Movement of 1857-58 in Tirhut and the Rebels”, in JBRS, Vol. 61, 1975, pp. 105 -122. Thakur makes use of Muzaffarpur Collectorate Records (Vide Annual report of the Regional Records Survey Committee, Bihar 1952-53)
15 Waris Ali was hanged after some delay, in anticipation that some more clues about the mutineers could be obtained from him, Shaad Azimabadi, op cit.