Events in the Mohmand country were not confined to the excitement emanating from the proposed delimitation of the hinterland. During the last five years an Afghan freebooter from Jandol, Umra Khan, had made bold bids for supremacy alternately against the Khan of Jandol and the Mir of Dir, uniting with the one against the other as his interests dictated and opportunity served. Success attended him when, in an attempt to occupy part of the Kunar valley, upon which Abdur Rahman had already cast eyes, he was badly defeated by Ghulam Haidar. In due course he recovered and re-establishing his rule over Dir and Nawagai, he contracted an alliance with Shir Afzal, lately Mehtar of Chitral. At the moment this man was a fugitive; and, as such, a cat’s-paw of the Amir of Afghanistan from whose custody he had been permitted to escape, since Abdur Rahman was proposing to step into his shoes if any conspicuous result attended Umra Khan’s operations in Chitral. Moreover, Ghulam Haidar and Umra Khan had come to terms upon a basis which furnished the Afghan king-maker with supplies, volunteers and ammunition. If the nature of the agreement between Abdur Rahman and Shir Afzal were never entirely disclosed, the character of the understanding between the Sipah Salar of the Amir of Afghanistan and the progressive ruffian from Jandol was soon confirmed. As Ghulam Haidar watched over the welfare of the Udny party in the Lower Kunar valley, the situation shifted early in the New Year of 1895 from the Mohmand country to Chitral. Here the sudden appearance of Umra Khan at the head of a motley force on behalf of Shir Afzal had precipitated a dynastic war. While Umra Khan seized Kala Drosh in Lower Chitral proclaiming Shir Afzal, the British agent in Gilgit, Dr. (now Sir George) Robertson, advancing from that station threw himself into Chitral and set up a cadet of the reigning family as the rightful ruler. Umra Khan, supported by large numbers of well-armed Afghan infantry from the Sipah Salar’s camp at Asmar and plentifully supplied with Kabul breechloaders and ammunition, advanced against Dr. Robertson, inflicting upon him a crushing defeat. The effect of this disaster on British prestige was in a measure effaced by the pluck and determination of the Chitral garrison, before whom, on March 3, 1895, Umra Khan settled himself for a siege. His triumph was short lived, since on April 18, the investment was rudely disturbed by the arrival of Colonel Kelly with 650 men from Gilgit. By then, too, a larger force had taken the field, for General Sir Robert Low, at the head of 15,000 soldiers with 30,000 transport animals and 10,000 followers, had embarked upon a campaign in the Swat-Bajaur-Chitral country.