Page 532 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

30 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE PERSIAN GULP

Sardar Scyyid Khan and Islam Khan have, during the autumn, come to a
better understanding. Seyyid Khan
Gaih District. has practically given the district between
Sadaich and Tank and as far northward as Bint to Islam Khan. He also sent
Islam to Bampur on his behalf to collect the taxes, at the end of November.
Islam Khan has hitherto undoubtedly been interested in the arms traffic, but
he came down to Rapch to see me in November and signed an agreement by
which he undertakes to do all in his power to assist us in stopping it. He
probably sees that our efforts to stop the trade have greatly decreased the
chances of making a profit in that direction, and therefore thinks it better
business to assist us, and thus obtain the good opinion of Government, and
>robably a subsidy. I met Sardar Seyyid Khan in Charbar at the end of
.December; he seems the most genuine and well disposed Chief that I have met,
nit it is a great pity that he is so addicted to opium smoking. The impression
eft on one's mind after seeing both Seyyid Khan and Islam Khan is that the
atter is a capable energetic man who is ambitious, and who will no doubt one
day be the paramount chief of Gaih, and that the former is a well meaning
chief who has had most of his energy sapped by the use of opium, and who is,
therefore, liable to be dominated by the more powerful personality of Islam
Khan. It may be that Seyyid Khan himself feels this, and if so, it would ac­
count for the ill-feeling which has existed between them.
An Afghan travelling from Bint to Ivarwan was murdered just outside
Hiyan, about 27th October. Dost Muhammad bin Shugrell of Hiyan is
reported to have incited Hakimdad bin Shabek and Shahgul bin Yar Muham­
mad to the act. The object was robbery, and the culprits are said to have
stolen a camel, a thousand rupees in cash, and ten Indian currency notes of
unknown values.
Early in November two Afghans quarrelled in tbe Masjid in Bint; during
the heat of the quarrel one drew his sword and murdered tbe other. Islam
Khan is reported to have kept the murdered man’s horse and other belongings.
The telegraph line was wrecked at Gilik, 5 miles east of the Sadaich
river, on 2Cth May, by Afghans whose consignment of arms had been captured
off Habt by II. 2\I. S. “ Perseus.” Both wires were again cut at Supt, 32 miles
from Charbar, on 7th September, by four Dizakis in revenge for having been
obliged to jettison the arms they were bringing from Mask at, owing to the
approach of one of His Majesty’s Ships.
The strained relationship between Mir Mahmud Khan and Mir Din
Muhammad continues to exist. Mir
Dishtyari District.
Din Muhammad made a pilgrimage to
Baghdad in September and October, returning to Charbar in November via
Maskat and Karachi. When he reached his home at Mirai bazaar he heard
that Mahmud Khan’s son, Mir Doorr. had been gathering taxes and fining his
subjects close to his fort at Mirai bazaar; he retaliated by treating some of
Mahmud Khan's subjects in like manner. They then quarrelled regarding
the division of the revenue which had been collected during Din Muhammad’s
absence. About 2Gth December Din Muhammad sent two brothers (Gundows)
from Mirai bazaar to Boonau to murder Mahmud Khan, but the latter was
warned by one of his followers and set out with six men lo search for them.
They came on the men hidden by the roadside when one fired on Mahmud
Khan, the bullet grazing his side. One was shot by Mahmud Kban on the spot
and the other caught alive by his followers; this second man, after confessing
that Mir Din Muhammad had hired them for Rs. 500 to murder Mahmud
Khan, was shot in the latter’s fort at Boonau. The followers of Din Muham­
mad declare that there was no intention to murder Mahmud Khan, but that
the men were looking for lost cattle, and that the idea of murder was solely a
creation of Mahmud Khan’s fear. Din Muhammad now claims blood money,
which Mahmud Khan refuses to pay on the ground that the men were mur­
derers. The general opinion is that the men intended murdering Mahmud
Khan.
Nawab Khan of Bhao Kalat has attached himself to Din Muhammad, he
*eems a most truculent young man whose ill-advice is probably responsible for
half "the trouble in Dashtyari.