Akbar Khan Muhammad

Akbar Khan Muhammad (d. 1848), son of Dost Muhammad Khan, the ruler of Afghanistan and the founder of the Barakzai Dynasty of Afghanistan. He was a very young man of great dash and daring. Like his father, he was keen to regain the former Afghan possessions in India; Multan, Kashmir, Attock and Peshawar.

His brothers were Sher Ali Khan and Mohammad Afzal Khan each of whom took turns ruling Afganistan after the death of their father.

Death of Hari Singh Nalua

• In 1837, Dost Muhammad Khan declared a holy war against the Sikhs and attacked the fortress of Jamrud at the entrance to the Khaibar Pass. An attack led by Akbar Khan was repulsed, though the valiant Sikh general, Hari Singh Nalua, was killed in the action.

• In the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842). After laying seige to the British at Kabul for a year he offered safe-conduct to the British. One has to wonder if Elphinstone, the very model of a modern Major-General, had been a historian of Sikh History, particularly of the siege of Anandpur Saheb, for he, like Guru Gobind Singh, trusted his advesary's offer of safe-conduct. Of the nearly 14,000 people who left Kabul (only about a quarter were soldiers), only one, a doctor made it back through the Hindu Kush to Peshawar and safety. To this date this was the worst defeat the British Empire has ever suffered. The massacre caused an outrage in London. The next year a larger army was sent to exact retribution.

• After the assassination of Maharaja Sher Singh in September 1843, Akbar Khan's ambition to recover Peshawar was rekindled. Early in 1844 he set up his camp at Jalalabad and began to make preparations for an attack on Peshawar, but he failed to retake the city.

• Akbar Khan died in 1848. Many believe that Akbar Khan was poisoned by his father, Dost Mohammed, fearing his son's ambitions.

References

• 1. Suri, Sohan Lal, `Umdat-ut-Twarikh. Lahore, 1885-89.
• 2. Gupta, Hari Ram, Panjab on the`Eve of First Sikh War. Chandigarh, 1975
• 3. Hasrat, BikramaJit, Life and Times ofRanjit Singh. Hoshiarpur, 1977