AFGHANISTAN.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12726, 23 March 1909, Page 5

AFGHANISTAN.

The Plot against the Ameer Wholesale Slaughter of Plotters Of several hundreds arrested at Jellabad for plotting against the Ameers lite, batches are being blown from the guns daily. It has long been known that theTe are formidabb influences at work behind the throne if Habibullah. In the first place, there is Sirdar Nasrullah Khan, younger brother to Habibullah, both of them being sons of Abdurrahman by a concubine named Gulriz. And in the second place thcTe is Bibi Halima, the Queen-Dowager, and widow of the late Ameer, by whom she has had a son, Sirdar Mahommcd Omar Jan. Bibi Kalima. was so intent on securing the thTone for her son, now twenty years of age, that Habibullah had to imprison her in one of the royal palaces, while he despatched her son on an indefinite tour of military inspection. Bibi Halima is of blood royal, being directly descended from the Ameer Dost Mahommed. Her son has, therefore, a strong hold on what mi-ht be called the Leninist Party. Naernllah represents the Nationalist Party of "Afghanistan for the Afghans." Mr Angus Hamilton says that Nasrullah remarkably resembles his father, the late Ameer, and on that account commends himself to many as a claimant for the throne. Habibullah is said to have come under the influence of the mnHabs very largely. nnd also to ; ha,ve indulged in "foolish dalliance" with the i independent tribesmen. His son, Sirdar i Inayat Ullah, has also to be taken into consideration, beine now the 6ame age as | his irncle, Sirdar Mahommed Omar. It is enough to eive Habihiillah sleepless nights , to know that any lack of vigilance on his i part is beiner waited for both by his full- J brother Nasrullah, and bis half-bTother, ,the legitimate pon of Abdurrahman, by Bibi Halima : while, in the event of anything happening to him— ard all sorts of things may hawevi to a ruler in Afghanistan — his son's ohanco of succeeding him would be lost. It is to he gathered that neither Nasrnllah nor Mahommed Omar would V>e likely to be so friendly towards the British Government as is Habibullah.