The Afghan Martyrs — Page 132
also ordered that his courtiers should wear European clothes. Failure to comply with his instructions invited heavy fines. These orders were like pouring oil over a burning object. Hence the rebellion against the King spread like wildfire. Habeebulla, also known as Bacha Saqqa was an ordinary soldier in Amaanulla's army. He overstayed his leave when he went to his village and fearing arrest, on his return he began living in the hills and became a bandit. Gradually he assembled a group of other bandits around him. and he, as commander of the group became known as 'Bacha Saqqa'. Taking advantage of the rapidly spreading rebellion and general anarchy, on the night of the 1st October 1928 Bacha Saqqa attacked Kabul with only four hundred bandits. As both prominent and unimportant residents of Kabul were by then opposed to the King, they secretly helped him in every way possible. Thus he captured Kabul. In retribution for killing the innocent Ahmadi victims Amaanulla Khan was overthrown by a mere bandit who then declared himself to be the King. The cowardly Amanulla felt he had no option but to flee. Handing over reins of government to his brother Sardar Inayatulla Khan, he escaped under cover of darkness. We reproduce below a narrative by the well known historian Azeez Hindi who covered the flight of the King. "There was insufficient fuel in the car that Ghazi Amaanulla Khan had chosen for his escape and there was not much in the other royal cars either. There was no prospect of buying any petrol on the way and so he set off with insufficient petrol but then his car overturned. Only two days earlier his favourite Indian driver had been found dead in his car. With only two gallons of petrol in the tank Ghazi Amaanulla set off for Qandhar. The escape of the 132