The Durrani Empire didn't even last a hundred years, it was preceded by a smattering of quasi-independent emirates, and other various entities. The Durand Line is a serious and legitimate problem for the future of Afghan-Pakistan relations, but to pretend that these regions were always joined at the hip simply isn't true.
I no longer read any posts by that individual, but that absolutely made my jaw drop.
Really? Backing the Durrani Empire?
An empire that was highly expansionist, and through force took over territory in what is now Iran and Pakistan?
Which had invaded India no less then 6 times? Primarily taking any riches it could find and destroying temples before returning to modern Afghanistan?
While somebody in here commented on how 13,000 or so was a "holocaust" upon people based upon politics, the Durrani had attempted no less then 2 actual genocides against the Sikhs. One in 1746, another in 1762. Both times in territory which is deep inside even modern day India (in the India of that era Pakistan was also part of it). Estimated death tolls were somewhere around 50,000, roughly half of the Sikh population at the time.
Now I noticed the reference to the Anglo-Afghan Wars. There were actually 3 of them.
The first was in 1839, which came about because the British refused to support the Afghans in an attack against the Sikhs, so they instead offered to allow the Russians to pass through their territory to invade India.
The second was in 1878. This started when a British envoy to the Afghan Empire was refused entry then fired upon. This caused the British to bring forces to the border, then invaded. They agreed to a cease fire and started to withdraw in mid-1879 once they agreed to accept a British envoy. However, in September of 1879 uin Kabul the British Envoy was killed, along with all of his guards and staff. This reignited the conflict, and the British withdrew when a more open government replaced the former one.
The final one was in 1919, when a new Khan of Afghanistan decided to invade India because they were not allowed to participate in the Versailles Peace Talks.
And did you notice that the accepted border is the "Durrand Line", and not the "Durrani Line"? It is named after Sir Mortimer Durrand, a British diplomat. It had no connection to the Durrani Empire, that empire had ceased to exist way back in 1826.
Funny how some people will scream out about the death of around a dozen thousand, then scream that a group that had killed scores of thousands were innocent victims of Imperialism.
But please, I encourage everybody to research the various Anglo-Afghan Wars, and the Durrani Empire. One of the first true "modern Genocides". The protection that the British gave to the Sikhs in that time is one reason even to this day that they have long supported the UK. The 3 most feared groups of British Empire fighters for over a century were the the Gurkhas, and the Sikhs. Both were fiercly loyal to the Empire, because both recognized that they could each have been destroyed, but were instead saved and brought in as allies when they lost wars with them. That kind of "peace" after a war was almost unknown in that area of the world, and earned the repect and honor of their former adversaries.
opcorn::cuckoo:
