dreams melted into air, 1919–29own fatwa, which asserted that, as a Muslim king, all his subjects were
required to render him absolute obedience, and sent Loynab ‘Ali Ahmad
Khan to put down the rebels in Nangahar, in the process denuding Kabul
of all but a handful of front-line regiments.
Meanwhile north of Kabul, Tagab, Kohistan and the Koh Daman were
in a state of rebellion. The trouble began when the king tried to arrest the
Mullah of Tagab, only for the force sent to seize him to be ambushed and
defeated. In the Koh Daman, a band of robbers had been raiding the Kabul–
Charikar highway for several months and holding merchants to ransom.
Their leader, Habib Allah Kalakani, better known as Bacha-yi Saqau, or Son
of a Water Carrier, 54 had served on the estate of Mustufi Husain Khan Safi as
a youth, but in 1919 he had been conscripted into the army and fought under
Sardar Nadir Khan in the Third Anglo-Afghan War. He subsequently fought
with the basmachis as a member of the Afghan Volunteer Force. In 1924
Kalakani took part in the suppression of the Khost rebellion but deserted
after he claimed he and his men had not received their share of war booty.
Habib Allah and his comrades-in-arms then returned to the Koh Daman
where they began to rob villages and plunder caravans. 55
The government was unable to suppress these raids and instead
Ahmad ‘Ali Lodi, governor of Charikar, offered Habib Allah Kalakani a
royal pardon, cash and army rank if he and his men rejoined the army
and helped put down the revolt in Nangahar. As a sign of good faith, the
governor offered to send Habib Allah a pledge of safe conduct, but Kalakani
was suspicious and demanded the king seal the pledge of pardon and safe
conduct on the Qur’an. Ahmad ‘Ali called ’Aman Allah Khan on the tele-
phone link to discuss the proposal and the king instructed him to wrap
up an ordinary book in a cloth to make it seem like a Qur’an, and lure
Kalakani to Charikar, where he was to arrest him and send him to Kabul to
be executed. What ’Aman Allah Khan did not know was that the telephone
operator, a friend of Habib Allah’s, eavesdropped on the conversation and
warned him of the deception. Habib Allah then phoned the king himself,
pretending to be the governor of Charikar, and asked what his instructions
were in respect of Kalakani, whereupon ’Aman Allah Khan shouted down
the line: ‘Kill him, kill him!’ Habib Allah Kalakani, so the story goes, then
revealed his true identity, heaped abuse on the king, and vowed to march
on Kabul and depose him. 56
Habib Allah Kalakani then held a series of secret meetings with
influential religious figures in Kohistan and the Koh Daman including
Akhundzada ‘Abd Allah Jan, Buzurg Jan and Hazrat Mujadidi of Tagab,
individuals who were opposed to the king’s reforms and who had close ties