afghanistanamirs of the wilayat of Balkh still regarded the Manghit Khan as the sover
eign power. Dost Muhammad Khan, along with his two eldest surviving
sons, Muhammad Afzal Khan and Muhammad Akbar Khan, were initially
well received by Nasr Allah Khan but it soon became clear that the Khan of
Bukhara had no intention of supporting the Barakzai cause. Instead, Dost
Muhammad Khan was effectively placed under house arrest. When Akram
Khan and Afzal Khan made a dash for freedom and were recaptured, he
and his sons were treated more like prisoners. Dost Muhammad Khan even
suspected Nasr Allah Khan planned to have him and his sons poisoned.
It was not until the following summer that Dost Muhammad Khan
managed to escape and made his way back to Khulm following a series
of adventures, only to discover that a few weeks earlier Nawab Jabbar
Khan had accepted Macnaghten’s offer of amnesty and had left for Kabul
with all the women and children. Despite the fact that his family was in
British hands, Dost Muhammad Khan refused to give up. The Mir Wali had
raised a force of some 6,000 Uzbeks and in September 1840 they marched
up the Surkhab and forced the British to abandon their outposts of Ajar,
Kahmard and Bajgah and fall back on Bamiyan. As a sign of what was to
come, during the encounter at Bajgah half of Shah Shuja‘ alMulk’s cavalry,
along with all their officers, deserted while the remaining Afghan levies
were captured and disarmed.
Dost Muhammad Khan followed up these successes by marching on
Bamiyan but when they reached Saighan, the gateway to Bamiyan on the
north, he unexpectedly encountered Colonel Dennie, who commanded a
small force of Gurkhas and native cavalry. Despite being heavily outnum
bered, Dennie ordered his Gurkhas to storm the enemy’s position and after
heavy fighting the Uzbeks turned and fled. Dennie then sent the cavalry in
pursuit and most of the Mir Wali’s men, as well as the deserters from Shah
Shuja‘ alMulk’s regiment, were slain. Following this victory Dr Lord, the
political officer in Bamiyan, offered Dost Muhammad Khan honourable
exile if he surrendered, only to be curtly informed that the Amir was deter
mined to ‘conquer or fall in the attempt’. 5 The Mir Wali and Murad Beg
of Qataghan, however, were more willing to seek an accommodation, for
the Mir Wali’s army had been decimated and he feared that Dennie might
push on and occupy Khulm. Dennie, though, was in no position to do so
for the Bamiyan garrison was already overstretched and it was decided not
to regarrison Saighan, Kahmard or Ajar.
This did not prevent Dr Lord and Major Todd, who had replaced
Pottinger in Herat, drawing up separate, and contradictory, plans for
annexation of Balkh, plans that the government in London eventually