From 1885 onwards the attention of the Indian government was
increasingly devoted to the north-west frontier. Between the years 1885
and 1895 there were delimited at various times by joint commissions the
Russo-Afghan frontier between the Oxus and Sarakhs on the Persian
frontier, the Russo-Afghan frontier from Lake Victoria to the frontier
of China and the Afghan-Indian frontier from the Kunar river to a point
in the neighbourhood of the Nawa Kotal. To the westward, after various
disagreements and two military expeditions, the territories comprising
the Zhob, Barhan and Bori valleys, occupied by Pathan tribes, were in
1890 finally incorporated in the general system of the Trans-Indus
protectorate. About the same time in the extreme north the post of
British resident in Gilgit was re-established, and the supremacy of
Kashmir over the adjoining petty chiefships of Hunza-Nagar was enforced
(1891-1892). In 1893 the frontiers of Afghanistan and British India were
defined by a joint agreement between the two governments, known as the
Durand agreement. There followed on the part of the British authorities,
interference in Chitral, ending in an expedition in 1895 and the
ejection of the local chiefs in favour of candidates amenable to British
influence. A more formidable hostile combination, however, awaited the
government of India. By the agreement of 1893 with the amir most of the
Waziri clan and also the Afridis had been left outside the limits of the
amir's influence and transferred to the British zone. Soon after that
date the establishment by the British military authorities of posts
within the Waziri country led to apprehension on the part of the local
tribesmen. In 1895 the occupation of points within the Swat territory
for the safety of the road from India to Chitral similarly roused the
suspicion of the Swatis. The Waziris and Swatis successively rose in
arms, in June and July 1897, and their example was followed by the
Mohmands. Finally, in August the powerful Afridi tribe joined the
combination and closed the Khyber Pass, which runs through their
territory, and which was held by them, on conditions, in trust for the
government of India. This led to the military operations known as the
Tirah campaign, which proved very costly both in men and money.
The currency.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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