afghanistanThe Kunar rebellionIn the winter of 1944/5 discontent led to a series of rebellions, the most
ser ious of which was among the Safis and Mohmands of the Kunar. 17
The rebel leaders included General ‘Abd al-Rahim, brother-in-law of
Mustufi Mirza Husain Safi, and a son of Mir Zaman Khan Safi, known as
Loya Khan, a title conferred on him by ’Aman Allah Khan. 18 The rebels
appointed their own king and prime minister and in effect declared inde-
pendence. In the end it took six months before the government managed
to crush the Kunar revolt. When it was finally put down thousands of
Safi families were exiled to the Hari Rud or the Sholgara district of Balkh.
Most of the surviving members of Mir Zaman Khan and Mustufi Mirza
Husain’s family ended up spending years in prison, including the poet and
historian Ustad Khalil Allah Khalili. He and his family were only saved
from execution because King Zahir Shah, in a rare act of defiance, refused
to sign their death warrants.
In the winter of the following year there was another rebellion, this
time in the Hazarajat, sparked by the imposition of a tax on sheep fat, or
roghan-i zard, the main cooking oil used in Afghanistan and a major source
of income for the Hazaras. Led by Muhammad Ibrahim Beg, known as
The Sholgara valley, on the Balkh Ab, south of Balkh has such an abundance of water that
rice and cotton are extensively cultivated. Following the Safi revolt of 1945, thousands of
Pushtuns from the Kunar were forcibly relocated here. As the Sholgara valley lies upstream
of the Hazhda Nahr canal network, which irrigates the Balkh plains, disputes over water
rights are frequent.