In the following year the Shiahs of the Ali Khel (hamsaya) clan of Orakzais preferred a similar petition, but the annexation of their country did not present advantages equal to that which had accompanied the request put forward in the preceding year. The tract of country offered us by the Bar Muhammad Khel was an undivided stretch of hills with no inhabitants save Shiahs; while in the case of the Ali Khel, although some of the villages concerned were large and powerful, yet they were so mixed up with Sunni communities that annexation would have been impracticable, even if desirable. The request of the Ali Khel was consequently also refused, the Governments of the Punjab and of India being very strongly against any extension of our responsibilities in the tribal tracts beyond the Kohat district. So matters remained until the frontier disturbances of 1897–98, during which these Shiah clans maintained a uniformly friendly attitude towards us, as they had also during the Miranzai expeditions, when they gave us material assistance. In January 1898 the then Secretary of State for India laid down certain principles for the conduct of frontier policy, whereby his successors seem in the main to have since been guided. These were: (1) That no fresh responsibility should be accepted unless absolutely required by actual strategic necessities and for the protection of the British border; (2) that interference with the tribes must when possible be avoided; (3) that no countenance should be given to the idea that Government intended to administer or enclose the tribal country; and, finally, (4) that in view of the suspicion which the Durand demarcation had aroused, one of the primary objects of our future actions should be gradually to allay such doubts and misgivings. [Sidenote: Shiah Friendship for British]