afghanistanspending many years in a Pakistani jail, a period under house arrest and
eight years of exile in Nangahar.
During the winter of 1929 ‘Abd al-Ghaffar established Khudai
Khidmatgar committees throughout the Northwest Frontier and in April
1930 he held a mass meeting in his home village ostensibly to celebrate
the anniversary of his Azad (‘Freedom’) School system. However, during
the event the schoolchildren staged a drama that the British declared was
seditious and ‘Abd al-Ghaffar was arrested. When security forces moved
into the Qissa Khwani bazaar in the old city of Peshawar to detain other
leaders of the movement, they were confronted by thousands of angry
protestors. The Deputy Commissioner tried to restore order but was
knocked unconscious by a stone. A dispatch rider was lynched in the
melee and an armoured car tried to recover his body by driving into the
crowd, killing or injuring several protestors and inflaming the mob even
more. Eventually the commander of the paramilitary force ordered his men
to open fire, which led to the deaths of dozens more demonstrators. The
troops were eventually forced to withdraw and negotiations took place,
but it was almost a month before the authorities regained control over
the Old City.
A few weeks after the Qissa Khwani Massacre, several thousand Afridis
besieged the Peshawar Cantonment, but were driven off by artillery fire and
raf planes. In mid-August 1930 martial law was proclaimed throughout
the Peshawar District and reinforcements shipped in. The government
then sent troops, tanks and heavy artillery into the Khyber and Mohmand
Agency and forced the Afridis and Mohmands to sue for peace. The Hajji
Sahib of Turangzai, however, remained defiant until his death in 1937.
Despite personal appeals from tribal leaders to support the rebellion,
Nadir Shah remained neutral and even denied fleeing Afridis entry to
Afghanistan, a policy that won him the respect of British officials. Relations
improved even further when the Afghan Foreign Ministry reaffirmed the
government’s acceptance of the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1923 and the subse-
quent Trade Agreement. Privately, Nadir Shah assured Maconachie that
his government did not intend to intervene in Frontier affairs, although
he did point out that it would be necessary on occasion to dissimulate in
order to appease tribal sentiment. Afghanistan’s neutrality soon brought
substantial dividends. In the summer of 1930 the government, faced with
revolts in the Koh Daman, Qataghan and Khost, asked Britain for a loan
and weapons and was gifted 10,000 rifles and £200,000. Over the ensuing
years, Britain clandestinely shipped more munitions to Kabul to help the
government suppress a series of revolts.