When one watches the time period, before the foundation of Fazilka town was laid, one can see several political powers consolidating the various
region had an eye to bring it in their control, but under pressure from the soldiery of history of East 1India Company,srakar-e-Khalsaji and the Govrnment in Afganisthan, they retreated to their haunts. As the students of history know, the political acumen with which Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) brought
all the tribal factions together, the Resident at Ludhiana, Ambala and the commanders at the Maharaja. During the early Nineteenth century when the Sakar-e-Khalsaji was at its zenith, the Maharaja had made trips to the left bank of sutlej, and the Residents of the East India Company in Ludhiana
and Ambala spent quite a few sleepless nights. and when the areas of Bahawlpur state on the right bank of the Sutlej were reduced by the Lahore government, there was no doubt left that with the trained military might of Sarkar-e-Khalsaji, the Bahawlpur state and other smaller rajas will be reduced. The English further knew that unlike their other opponents in the sub-continent, Ranjit Singhwas a different kind. So though they outwardly kept friendly relations with Lahore government, but all the time were cautious. And the Bangla at the site of present Fazilka was established in 1844(just 5 years after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh) with an officer by the name of Vans Agnew to have an organised agency for watching the doings of nieghbouring princes.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh was not only a military commander of excellence, he was one monarch who could read between the lines. He realized the attitude of Company residents and demanded that the regions of Chamkaur, anandpur, mouthuwal and Firozpur and desired that these regions should be agreed for all his demands except Firozpur in 1828. But they started pleading to the Maharaja with Lame excuses for permission to study the possibility of navigation in Sutlej and other Punjab rivers from the point of view of commercial interests. Again Lahore goyernment resisted their this technique of piercing the dominions and ultimately grabbing it. And probably the Company expectanly waited that Maharaja should annex as many Subas as he can, so that they could annex it when so desired at a later date. They knew that the health of the monarch was deteriorating(dr. Murray was treating the Maharaja in 1827 for his ailment and was specially called from Ludhiana).
Under these circumstances, the Company chose the site of present Fazilka due to its strategic importance to monitor theactivities of Sarkar-e-Khalsaji, Bahawalpur, Bikaner, Faridkot and Mamdot and other minor principalities. Even today the strategic importance of Fazilka is of immense value that it is at the tip of boundaries of Pakisthan, Rajsthan, Haryana(Haryana lays a claim over this fertile area in lieu of chandigarh without much weight in its arguments) though now it is accepted that it will be forming a part of Firozpur district in the Punjab.
Source: Fazilka - The Town of the Learned by Dr. Bhupinder Singh
