nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47for that.’ 33 General Elphinstone too was alarmed and wrote to Macnaghten
asking him what guarantees he had from Akbar Khan that he was not
about to be betrayed. As for Mohan Lal, he had been warned by an impec-
cable source that Macnaghten was walking into a trap. Mirza Khudadad,
Saddiq Khan’s confidential secretary who had been present at the secret
meeting, was one of his many informers and during the night he risked
his life to visit Lal and warn him that Akbar Khan had laid ‘a deep scheme
to entrap the Envoy’. 34 In response, Lal sent an urgent messenger to warn
Macnaghten not to attend the meeting. He found the envoy just as he was
leaving the cantonment, yet Macnaghten would not listen to the warnings
and was stupid, or arrogant, enough to believe it was he who had the upper
hand. So confident was he that he went to the meeting accompanied by a
handful of officers and without a military escort.
Before leaving the cantonment Macnaghten requested Shelton to
assemble two regiments outside the cantonment, ostensibly to act as his
backup, though the real intention was that once his meeting had ended
these troops would join Akbar Khan in the attack on Qal‘a-yi Mahmud
Khan. Shelton, despite his many faults, was nothing if not an honourable
man and he was not prepared to be party to such a disgraceful trick, so he
informed Macnaghten that he could not assemble a force so quickly, and
anyway his men were far too busy preparing for the evacuation. In the end
the regiments never appeared, which may have led Akbar Khan to believe
that at the last moment Macnaghten planned to double-cross him too.
If the warning were not enough to alert Macnaghten to his precar-
ious position, Akbar Khan’s choice of meeting place should have set alarm
bells ringing. The location was a small, isolated hillock beside the Kabul
river, on what is today the west side of the Stadium opposite the Id Gah
Mosque, a location which is still marked by a memorial plaque. When he
arrived Macnaghten was surprised to find representatives of most of the
rival factions present, including ’Amin Allah Khan Logari’s brother and the
chiefs of the Jabbar Khel, with whom he had been negotiating regarding
provisions and submission to Shah Shuja‘. There was also a large body of
armed ghazis surrounding the meeting place. When Macnaghten asked
Akbar Khan why these men were present at a meeting that was meant to
be highly confidential, Akbar Khan replied, ‘they are all in on the secret’.
Macnaghten failed to grasp the implication of these words and instead of
fleeing back to the cantonment, he stretched out on the ground as if he
was taking his ease.
Seeing the envoy had not taken the hint, Akbar Khan offered him a
final chance to redeem himself by asking whether he was still prepared