Khost rebellion (1924–1925)

Prior to 1924, the city of Khost had rebelled twice: the first rebellion took place from 1856 to 1857 and was fought by Khostwal and Waziri tribesmen against the rule of Dost Mohammad Khan. The second rebellion took place in 1912 and was a rebellion by the Mangal, Jadran, and Ghilzai tribes against the "rapacity and exactions" of the local governor, and saw Habibullah Khan's reign contested by Jehandad Khan. There were multiple reasons for the rebellion in 1924, including opposition to the Westernizing reforms made by King Amanullah of Afghanistan, a code promulgated in 1923 called the "Nizamnama", which granted women more freedom and allowed the government to regulate other issues seen as family problems, which were formerly handled by religious authorities, a new law which restricted passage for the eastern tribes across the Durand Line, restrictions placed on the practice of polygyny, the abolition of child marriage, and disputed this claim. With consent of the fiancée, Amr-al Din rejected this claim, however, Mulla Abd Allah had been bribed to see that the fiancée had been betrothed, and complained that this rejection violated the Sharia, but this complaint was ignored, which led Mulla to make up his mind to instigate a rebellion. == Uprising ==

Uprising begins (March–April 1924) In mid-March 1924, the city of Khost, where protests had been ongoing since autumn 1923, erupted in an open rebellion against the government, led by Mulla Abd Allah. tribal and religious leaders, a loya jirga, which he hoped would help legitimize his policies and therefore counter Mulla's religious claims.) battalions. Nevertheless, he deserted the unit at some unspecified time, and after working in Peshawar moved to Parachinar (on the Afghan border) where he was arrested and sentenced to eleven months imprisonment. A second battalion of the same brigade, which apparently refused to serve beyond the three months for which it had originally been ordered on service, was recalled at the same time. Their success in putting out of action two of the best regiments of the Afghan regular army appears to have raised the morale of the rebels, as much as it lowered that of the city population. The Amir, however, still clung to his plan of conciliating the insurgents by an ostentatious acceptance of the resolutions of the Great Assembly, which was to meet on July 16. On 11 August, war was officially declared against the Mangals. On 11 August 1924, On 25 August, rebel forces successfully attacked Kulangar, where they destroyed 2 government battalions. --> died fighting rebels in October 1924. The period of October 1924 to February 1925 was one of protracted negotiation between individual tribes on the one side, and individual Afghan generals on the other. The only active operations that have marked this period were a few isolated raids by Zadrans, in which Afghan regular troops were defeated, and suffered considerable loss in men, weapons, and treasure. He was succeeded as chieftain by his son, Mazrak. By November, the rebels were forced out of Hesarak and away from Ghazni. with the imprisonment and execution of 40 Rebel leaders. • A Guide to Intra-state Wars (2015) makes no mention of the execution of rebel leaders in January 1925 and instead says that the government started a new offensive in February 1925 after the failure of peace talks in December, and then goes on to conclude that the rebellion had been crushed by March 1925''. Abd-al Karim evaded capture and fled back into the British Raj. Tom Lansford attributes the defeat of the rebels to the Royal Army's superior weapons and training. == Aftermath ==

Over the course of the rebellion, which Fayz Muhammad described as being suppressed "only with great difficulty", The defeat of the Khost rebellion was followed by reprisals on the Mangal population. 1515 men were executed, 600 women were dragged off to Kabul, and 3000 houses were burnt and razed to the ground. the Khost Monument was built, celebrating the "triumph of knowledge over ignorance". The monument sustained some damage during the civil wars of the 1990s but was later rebuilt. In 2022 and 2023, Kabuli passers-by were asked about the monument's origin; most believed that it related to the Third Anglo-Afghan War or the 1928-1929 civil war. Only one passer-by correctly identified the monument with the Khost rebellion. == Britain's role ==

During the rebellion, the Afghan government portrayed rebel leaders as traitors seeking to serve British interests, and that the campaigns against the rebels were undertaken in the defense of Afghanistan against British influence. In British Raj however, it was generally suspected that the Soviet Union was responsible for providing financial and military aid to the rebels, while in the Soviet Union, the blame was put on Britain. Senzil Nawid writes that despite claims of British involvement by Afghan historians and the contemporary Afghan press, "neither the press reports nor Afghan historians have provided corroborating evidence for this theory". In A Precis On Afghan Affairs (1928), Richard Roy Maconachie, writing in his capacity as a civil servant for the British Raj, reported that Britain supplied Afghan forces with barbed wire, medicine, two airplanes (on payment), 30 Lewis guns (on payment), and 3000 rifles with ammunition (on payment). He noted that, though the Afghan government accepted military support from the British empire, the portrayal of rebels as British assets was indispensable for the government's propaganda effort. == See also ==