A RUSSIAN ACCOUNT OF THE CABUL OUTBREAK.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2356, 5 October 1880, Page 4

A RUSSIAN ACCOUNT OF THE CABUL OUTBREAK.

ALLEGED HORRIBLE CRUELTIES. 200 AFGHANS BURNED ALIVE. The “ Turkeatanski Vedomosti ” contains a long account of English operations in Afghanistan, derived from Bagantin Khan, an envoy sent to Taskkend by the Afghan Governor of Mazar-i-Shereef. The following curious details throw a light on the origin of the Cabul outbreak : On the day of the catastrophe General Abdul Karim Khan summoned three battalions of rifles (serdali) to the Bala Hissar to give them their monthly pay. The soldiers refused the one month’s salary proffered them by the Assistant Minister of War, and demanded money for two, as had been given to the battalions already sent to the Tchar villayet. Abdul Karim refused, on the ground that the latter had been sent on active service. The troops continued their clamor and at last threatened to break out into revolt. Abdul thereupon laughed at them, and told them they did not dare to do so, adding that if they had been brave men in war time the English would have never been sitting that day in Cabul as their conquerors. These words were hardly uttered when the whole of the soldiers, with cries of “ Hazavat” rushed off to the Residency. Major Cavagnari, alarmed at the noise and hearing the cries of “ Hazavat,” immediately ordered the English to fire on the mob. This was done and ten Afghans fell dead. The troops, until then unarmed, rushed off to the barracks, and returning at the end of a few minutes, opened fire upon the house. The English maintained a desperate defence, firing from every cranny upon the Afghans. Seeing that they could not force the Residency the Afghans fired it, and when the defenders dashed out they killed them to a man. Up to this moment the Afghan loss was thirty five. The burnt body of Major Cavagnari was found in a box (the ‘ Turkestanski Vedomosti ’ puts “ p ” after this) ; 400 bodies of the English were counted among the slain. We pass over the narrative of Yakoob Khan’s subsequent movements and the defeat of Mahomed Jan, which contains nothing new. “ The English in occupying Cabul razed to the ground the Residency and then commenced to investigate the massacre. Desiring to punish the culprits and prevent similar deeds in the future, the English had recourse to terrible atrocities. In an open space in the Bala Hissar they built an immense scaffold and hanged on it in chains twelve to twenty men at a time, first drenching them with inflammable oils, and then setting light to a bonfire under their feet. In tins manner many Affghans were slowly burnt alive. Upwards of 200 were thus treated, among them three holy personages of great sanctity, not only in Affghanistan but also throughout the whole Mussulman world.” Referring to the subsequent successes of Mahomed Jan, the Affghan narrator, who was with him at the time, ascribes as the “ source of his opposition, and the rapidity with which the Affghans flocked to his banner, the needless destruction by General Roberts of the villages in the district of Cabul.”