At this date there were rather over 3000 troops garrisoning posts in the Upper Indus, Gilgit and Chitral Valleys, and of these roughly one-third were regular troops of the Indian Army, the remainder belonging to regiments of the Kashmir Durbar. When the murder of Nizam took place, Lieutenant Gurdon was in political charge at Chitral, accompanied by no more than eight men of the 14th Sikhs, drawn from a detachment of 103 posted at Mastuj under Lieutenant Harley. There were no other troops of any kind in Chitral, and the nearest garrison was at Gupis, far on the eastern side of the Shandur Pass. The nearest regular troops were ninety-nine men of the 14th Sikhs at Gilgit, while the 32nd Pioneers, rather over 800 strong, were employed on the Bunji-Chilas road. Gurdon at once drew upon Mastuj for fifty Sikhs of its garrison, and these reached him unhindered and unmolested on the 7th January. In anticipation of possible trouble, the following moves then took place: Mastuj was reinforced by 100 men of the 4th Kashmir Rifles from Gupis, 200 men of the same regiment moved up to Ghizr, while Gupis was strengthened by 150 men of the 6th Kashmir Light Infantry from Gilgit. Shortly before this Surgeon-Major Robertson—now Sir George Robertson—had relieved Colonel Bruce in charge of the Gilgit Agency, and he now at once left for Chitral, taking with him some of the 4th Kashmir Rifles under Captain Townsend, Central India Horse, and the remainder of the 14th Sikhs from Mastuj—100 in all. Before he reached there, however, the Chitralis, who had at first evinced some intention of opposing Umra Khan, had been driven from a position they had taken up in front of Kila Drosh; while a fortnight later—on the 9th February—the fort of Drosh was surrendered, without any pretence of resistance, to Umra Khan, with all its rifles and stores. About the 18th the situation, already sufficiently complicated, was rendered even more so by the news that Sher Afzul, probably the most generally popular of all the claimants to the throne, had arrived at Drosh. He was at once joined by some of the lower class Chitralis, and by the end of February nearly all the Adamzadas (members of clans descended from the founder of the ruling family) had also gone over to him. On the 1st March the British Agent withdrew his escort—now numbering 100 of the 14th Sikhs and 320 of the 4th Kashmir Rifles—into the fort at Chitral; and on the following day in _durbar_, it being patent that Amir-ul-Mulk, listening to the promptings of ill-advisers, had been intriguing with Umra Khan, Amir was placed under surveillance, and his young brother, Shuja-ul-Mulk, was formally recognised as Mehtar, subject to the approval of the Government of India. [Sidenote: The New Mehtar]