AFGHAN REBELLION

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 139, 8 March 1929, Page 11

AFGHAN REBELLION

HORRORS DESCRIBED DREADFUL FATE OF PRIESTS FINAL SCENE OF REIGN OF. AMANULLAH (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Australian Press Association. (Rec. March 7, 7.20 p.m.) London, March 7. The horrors of the Afghan rebellion are described by Colonel Ghulam Nabl Khan, once an officer in King Amanullah’s army, in a letter from Kabul published in the “Daily Express.” The colonel tells how he was sitting with a companion in the forenoon when suddenly he heard the rattle of chains and the sound of a procession of soldiers shouting to “Make way for . 4 the unfaithful. Make way for the disloyal.” The chained prisoners were priests en route for execution. “When we. learned what their fate was, our blood froze in our veins. These were - Mullahs, who had excited the Shin- q waris against the King. They were taken outside the city, buried in the earth to their necks, and then a troop of cavalry was ordered to gallop over them. In bygone days I witnessed many gruesome punishments, Buch as leaving a robber to die of starvation in a cage, yet I could see that even the populace of the capital would stand it no longer. Shops were closed in protest, while praying crowds filled the mosques and only the , wailing of Afghan women, who do not cry easily, broke the silence of the city of mourning.” The colonel depicts the final scene of King Amanullah’s reign as follows : “Troopers of his bodyguard revolted. Bread riots broke out, while the roar of guns, the whirring of aeroplanes and the click-clack of bullets came nearer and nearer. Then in the darkness-the people piled up and set fire to European hats and clothing before the royal palace, shouting like madmen and denouncing foreign dress and all that it meant. Suddenly a motor-car was seen threading its way through the • crowd. There.was a rush to attack it, but someone siiouted that it contained only women, so it passed safely, containing Amanullah. Thus ended the first act. The curtain will rise on the - second -when the spring sun melts the snow.”