In 1904, however, an even more extended offer of annexation was made to the Government of India, under circumstances differing from those of 1895. In the summer of 1903 a fakir from Ghazni created disturbances in the Orakzai country, preached a jehad, and made an organised attack against the Shiahs. The fakir’s Sunni forces were, however, twice defeated, the fakir left the country, and hostilities came to an end. But even while the fighting was still in progress, the Chappar Mishtis, a Sunni division, applied to be taken over by the British Government, but were informed that we could not interfere in a purely religious war, and that no petition from them could be entertained until peace was restored. When the war had come to an end, all the four Shiah divisions of the Muhammad Khel clan—the Mani Khel, Bar Muhammad Khel, Sipaia and Abdul Aziz Khel—with the Ibrahimzai and the Chappar Mishtis, at once made overtures to be taken over, expressing their desire to come under Government control somewhat on the same lines as the Kurram clans. The fighting strength of these tribes represented approximately 2710 men, the tract occupied by them containing some seventy villages, and being about thirty miles in length with a maximum breadth of some fourteen miles. The territory formed a complete block, bounded on the north by the Mastura river, running down on the south to the broken and undulating country within the limits of Kachai and Marai in British territory; on the east it extended to within four miles of Kohat; while on the west the boundary stopped just short of the point where the road, made during the expedition of 1897, crosses the Sampagha Pass. The strategical advantages conferred by the possession of this tract of country are especially great in the event of the Afridi tribe being ever again arrayed against us. These Shiah clans command one of the shortest routes from the Kohat side to the centre of Tirah by the Landuki Pass; there is access to the Bara Valley by the Maturi or the Uchpal Pass, and by Waran to the Khyber Afridi settlements in Rajgal and Maidan. They also overlook the territory of three of the hamsaya clans, and are in rear of the country of some of the Ismailzai divisions. On the 28th October, 1904, the Secretary of State for India expressed himself as unwilling to take any steps which he was of opinion might add appreciably to our frontier responsibilities, and therefore declined to authorise any serious departure from the general policy laid down by his predecessor in January 1898, or to incur the risk attaching to the suggested extension of the tribal area under our control. CHAPTER XV. ORAKZAIS: OPERATIONS.[128]